It seems a little type-o-centric to say "it uses latin characters, therefore, for some reasons or other, it should use the same typographic standards".
But this isn't quite true. Lojban, with a couple of exceptions, uses Latin characters just like other languages that use Latin characters. "G" does not, for example, represent the sound [a]. Lojban actually has a pretty clear match between the Latin alphabet and the sound that characters represent in most languages which use a Latin script (and even "non-language" scripts, like the IPA). Presumably, this was done because it would make Lojban much more accessible to people than simply using characters from the ASCII set, despite "problems" that it might cause (having to learn that "c" in Lojban is equivalent to English "sh," for example).
What Michael seems to be proposing is exactly the same thing--Lojban conventions for punctuation and capitalization should follow what is done for other languages which use the Latin script, in order to make it more accessible to people. Now, just as languages map different sounds to different letters (within certain bounds, of course), so too do they develop different conventions for spacing, punctuation, etc. I agree that simply doing what English does is not the solution; likewise, it is not okay to do what French, or Swahili, or German, or Yorùbá, or any other language does. Lojban should have it's own standards, which while uniquely Lojban, also make allowances for the fact that everyone learning it in the foreseeable future is likely to be familiar with some language which makes use of Latin characters.
I am honestly kind of surprised to find this much debate in response to the idea that something be changed. Is there actually any reason to NOT make Lojban more accessible to people, except that people who are already proficient in the language don't like it? I don't mean that sarcastically; I missed the start of the conversation--what is gained by asserting that there should be no change?
Chris