I hope you are right, but I am afraid things are not changing. The majority of the people I see do not want to do the research. You could go to their house, click on one of the reef boards for them, and they still wouldn't read it. I think that we who spend alot of our time on these boards tend to forget that the majority of people who set up tanks do not care enough to research beyond what the LFS tells them. Even when the good LFS gives them, what we would consider sound advice, how much do they actually remember? I never see anyone in my LFS asking questions who has a note pad. When I tell them, and actually write it down for them, the various reef links they can visit for great info maybe 1 in 20 actually look at them. I know this because these people come back to the LFS asking what type of bottled cure all they can buy because all their fish are dying. When I ask them if they researched the boards before they set the tank up they say "no, I haven't had the time yet."
The LFS I frequent sells on average of about 8 tanks to newbees each month. I asked the owner just the other day how many aquarium related books he had sold this year (not counting me), he said about 5, and that includes fresh and salt.
Until I started hanging out at my LFS (owner is a good friend) I never believed him when he told me this is the way the majority of aquarium owners act. I thought well, they must not know how to access the information. Its when I started trying to help them by pointing out good books right there in the store, and giving them the reef board info, that I started to realize the real problem, most people just don't care enough to do the research.
Steve