A friend of mine saw my bike for the firsttime on the weekend. He is into mountain bike racing, and his bicycles have some pretty trick carbon fiber, titanium, and billet alloy parts.
He was horrified at the length and weight of the levers, and was showing me some of the CNC machined billet alloy bicycle levers that are short and light, and ergo designed to only need two fingers to operate. It's certainly got me thinking....