Jim's pretty sick at the moment, but once he's fighting fit again I'm sure he'll revisit the avatar issue.
At this point in time 56.67% of the voters have voted for the custom avatars.
Me, personally, I like my avatar. It looks kinda like me...if you're stoned or hammered looking at it through the bottom of a dirty guiness glass with squinty eyes.... :-) LOL :-)
Actually I love the idea of more options, but I support the option that doesn't make the site slower.