Loose required Firstname & Lastname

I am using the LDAP modules and user-import and as also mentioned in this issue http://drupal.org/node/319021 the fact that users *must* have a firstname and lastname is somewhat limiting if you want to use other user-modules.

Both LDAP and User-import do not automatically create patrons easily because of this limitation.

Would it be possible to make the first&lastname sort of optional-mandatory? I think that *if* patrons and users are synced, the firstname & lastname (if present at all) of the user should be leading in any case, so every time a user updates her name, the firstname and lastname are copied into the patron. On the patron, if the userid is filled in, the firstname & lastname field are read-only.

I think that will lower the amount of future issues and questions about this great module considerably.