Arguing at what focal length a fixed lens camera zoom should start at was not my original intent. Fine, if 24 is desirable, how about a 24-50 equivalent, but you can't really get 24-70 and a decent aperture (barring some new technology) without the lens becoming too large to be pocketable. So there are three options:
1) A long zoom, with a marketable fast aperture number at the short end, quickly dropping off very quickly.
2) A prime lens
3) A short, but fast zoom
Canon and everyone else has done option 1 to death. It's popular enough to keep the line iterating, but I don't think that there's any new business to be had now -you're mainly selling to upgraders.
Many have now tried option 2 and for some, it has also been a success. The issue is flexibility, you only have one focal length and the wider you go the more you have to crop if you need long (yes you can buy a teleconverter, or a wide angle converter, but these are heavy and bulky to the point that you might as well buy an ILC). Still, I wouldn't complain if Canon had one in their lineup.
Option 3 is another option for a compromise. Limit the zoom ratio to 2x (I think even 3x is pushing it), just like Sigma did with the 18-35 f/1.8 Art. Obviously, it needs to be much smaller than the Sigma,
only some of which can come from the lens design freedom that a fixed lens camera can have, compare:
http://j.mp/2fDs9eN. So you would still need to trade aperture somewhere to get from the camera system on the right, to closer to that on the left
http://j.mp/2xj8QSg. Can it be achieved? Don't know, I'm not a lens designer or I'd be working on the problem for Canon, not writing on this forum.
My point is that it would be nice to see Canon do something different, but to do this they have to first get away from the idea that every Powershot must have a twenty-something to one hundred and something zoom, or they will only ever end up with a slow zoom design. Perhaps they could have one base body with different lens options (non-interchangeable): a conventional 24-120 equiv. zoom, a couple of primes and a couple of short fast zooms (a 24-50 equiv. & a 35-70 equiv?), maybe the ultra wide zoom compact that Nikon recently talked themselves out of producing (why limit ourselves to a 24mm wide end?). But I know that I'm dreaming, Canon will release the same old slow zoom Powershot that they always have and they will sell it to the same customers they always have and I still won't be one of them