Future major features

Block placement in course areas (though not between course sections) is already possible in current themes - custom block regions can be added surrounding the main-content region (although not within the $OUTPUT->main-content itself) such as in Flexibase. This is not intended to give teachers carte-blanche to fill a page with data and widgets, but to give teachers the flexibility to position the ones they do want/need where they want them to go and to ensure that content/functionality that the teachers deem to be important is available whatever the device used. At least the existing block region isn't totally disappearing on small screens anymore.

Now, how to go about adding such custom block regions with the new templating structure is something I still can't get my head around (yet).

Well while boost has some nice aspects, but I have some points against it and this trend of completely removing blocks.

It is true that most of Internet traffic is via mobile but the statement of "70% of internet traffic" looks more journalistic to me rather than a scientific statistic. What is that 70% used for? A random observation of people sitting around me on buss or train shows me that they're just watching YouTube, checking Facebook, or video chatting with their families abroad. Of course the traffic that is used for watching a 30 minutes video can be multiple times more than the traffic that is required to study a typical Moodle course from the beginning to the end. The message that is there for us is that we should take mobile support serious and put some effort on mobile support. That's it. We should not let these statistics to mesmerise us and inculcate the idea of being left behind while everything else has moved to mobile apps.

It is really good and actually a must to consider Moodle app users while designing courses. We should remember that they don't see blocks and they view course modules on a 7 inch display. Being limited to a 7 inch display means that only essential elements could be displayed in a single view and some taps are required to see additional stuff. But why should we deprive those who access Moodle on a 20 inch display from blocks? Blocks can be used to display additional info to students without the need to leaving the page they are in. An excellent example is the calendar block. It is fine if mobile users don't see it but it presents helpful visual information to desktop users. Another example is the upcoming events block. Another example is the recent activities block. As an ex Moodle student, I can say that the recent activities block is a must to have for each course. It is impossible for a student to check all sections of their course to see if their teacher has changed something or has added something to the course or not. I completely take my words back if someone tells me that it would still be possible to present all these information on the course page, without the need to do several clicks, without blocks. but at the moment I just don't understand why we should deprive desktop users from seeing these additional, useful information (yet none essential for app users) which could be right in front of their eyes on each course's main page and only present them with a list of activities and a lot of wasted areas which could be filled with blocks.

I attached how the administration block looked like in Moodle 1.9 when an admin was in a course. It only displayed options that were related to the course. If you wanted to change a site config, you had to go back to site home page to be able to see site-level administration options. I remember when the new administration block was introduced in 2.0 I was super happy that I didn't have to do so many redundant clicks and wait for many redundant page loads anymore. I could easily access all administration settings wherever I was. Now the administration block is removed from the vanilla install and this trend of removing blocks suggests me that it is only the matter of time before Moodle HQ stops maintaining it. The new gear icon only provides what the old administration block were offering. This is like going one step forward an many steps backward!

I understand that some of the concerns can be addressed with a custom course format or a custom theme but means the institutions who could do their stuff with standard install would have to go through the path of plugin developing or if they're lucky, ending up with using 3rd party plugins.

My students do use their smartphones, not exclusively, but they do use them, more and more. (The graph is fundamentally correct.)

I think that we are missing a very important point about the mobile learning environment.  Yes, when students can dedicate a chuck of time to study they are probably better off working behind their computer.  But the mobile environment gives us an opportunity to grab  a student's mind when they are on the go!  This is exactly what I want: I want students to be in my course whenever they have a spare moment.  This is how I pump more knowledge into their brains.  Also, students seem to be more "on the go" than they are stationary these days.

What I find interesting is that the other LMSs are still struggling with responsive design.  Sure, apps can fill the gap, but why not give students the entire course as they (pretty much) see it behind their computers?  When my student do comment on their mobile access to my moodle courses, they are doing it behind their smartphone's browser, not from the moodle app.  Moodle is already at least 3 years ahead of the other competitors.  I am glad to see that Moodle is already giving its responsive design the next boost!

Yep, both of those settings do it.  Thanks again, Daniel.