The current microinvertors are a bit expensive and custom, though often worth it. So I was suggesting there is still plenty of headroom for panel manufacturers to improve their product by integrating micro inverters and inteligence and such. Incidentally I think you technically have Solar edge optimizers, slightly different from micro inverters, hence why you still need an inverter, a blurry distinction admittedly.
You're absolutely right - I was forgetting what I installed! The SolarEdge thingies on my panels don't invert at all, they just modulate the voltage/connectivity for the panels so that malfunction/shade doesn't pull the whole array down.
What I'm personally waiting for is a grid-tied inverter that can also be used to directly charge batteries as well. Nobody seems to make one that doesn't involve some important compromises. For now it seems that if you want grid-tied and a battery system, you charge the batteries through a double DC->AC->DC conversion (i.e. charge the batteries from your regular house AC system), and somehow solve the instant-cutover problem separately.
