also, taking common UI patterns on mobile devices and using their popularity as an argument for using those patterns on the web seems invalid to me. Sure, it works on mobile - but users have a different expectation of how things work on mobile.
I both agree and disagree: new usage patterns on mobile should be studied and considered to see whether they can be adopted on desktop/non-mobile devices. For instance applications which keep their state permanently saved are pretty much mandatory on modern mobile devices, but very rare on desktop (Notational Velocity is one of the few apps I know which does that), yet not having to save ever would be a pretty nifty desktop UI pattern.
On the other hand, mobile UI patterns don't necessarily translate well indeed. There will probably be a lot of chaff, just as for a long time mobile UI suffered because developers were using desktop UI patterns on mobile devices which have not the wrong resolutions (nb: modern mobile devices have far higher resolutions than desktop machines 15 years ago) but the wrong input and output (physical size, shape, rest position, …).
