The only time we use shrinking is when we are shipping databases around (by shipping, I mean moving databases to teams in different geographic locations, or even within the network). Other than that, we never use shrinking.

I would agree on making shrinking harder simply because without the knowledge and skill on when & how to use shrinking, it does more bad than good (as you rightly put it, an angel might loose some feathers).

I would propose that shrinking be made possible if the following is true:

1. A trace flag is enabled AND

2. Database is in a single-user mode