It seems to me this is an issue for Wikipedia (et al) rather than
Commons per se.
My 2c, I strongly support the existing system. Having inline
attribution would be too intrusive. (How would it look for those
national flags that have been edited by 20 people...)
However maybe a mouseover system for everyone by default, that has the
{{information}}, would be a good idea.
cheers,
Brianna
--
They've just been waiting in a mountain for the right moment:
http://modernthings.org/