That's a good point, Scott, but what advantage does this have over the already existing "Show Icon Preview" feature? I use that for quickly identifying images all the time, and I just don't see Cover Flow replacing it.
Of course, it does NOT work with PDFs in Tiger, but I think that's another matter entirely. From what I've seen, I believe that in Leopard it will support the same range of files as Cover Flow and Quick Look (correct me if I'm wrong...NDA permitting).
You know what I'd really like? iPhone-like scrolling. Might be a bit awkward with a mouse, though.