For me, running no ether was just a way of trying to understand the why and the how. Of course, I wouldn't advocate making that standard practice, we need ether for a number of reasons. Lower compression ratios, easier starting, starter or no and better throttling. That last is a biggie for me.

In Europe, nitro is very expensive. So much so that they developed glow engines that ran well on very little or no nitro. Problems arose when those engines were imported to North America. No nitro meant higher compression ratios and when nitro fuels WERE used, all kinds of problems surfaced. That the manufacturers and importers didn't anticipate this is beyond me.

So consider a day that ether becomes so expensive that everyone just packs away their beloved, little engines. For no reason. Our diesel engines WILL run without ether and the problems associated with that will likely be solved by regular guys like you and me.