My list of "good things about the middle ages" is really looking at the ideal scenario. I think the items I mentioned are things that people considered important virtues to expect in others, if not necessarily habits they practiced themselves.
As far as the many ways in which being a pauper in the middle ages sucks, obviously, I agree, but it sucks to be poor in an ideal capitalist society as well. Also, it's difficult to improve your situation in both setups, and before you bring up any noble blood issues, surely you'll agree that blood is noble if it's backed with steel -- no other way. If you get an (possibly small) army together and overthrow a (possibly small) government, you have moved up in society. Nowadays the methods are different, but the difficulties are the same.
So really, when I talk about the pros of medieval society, I'm really talking about the pros of being somebody other than a serf in medieval society. If you talk about the benefits of capitalism, it's probably the benefits of being somebody other than a poor, unskilled labourer in capitalist society.
I would also ask, "Why should we pay attention to peasants in the middle ages? What interesting things did they do?" Insofar as they were interesting, I'm pretty sure history does pay attention to them.
Lastly I want to specifically defend two of the items I mentioned.
First, personal honour. Again, on the assumption that you had some social status above serf (although I note that the minimum social level you could hold, and still have this be acceptable, decreased over time), there was the mechanism of the duel available to you to rectify blemishes to your honour. While I realize this could get out of hand (and did so in France in the late Renaissance) I think that the notion that one's honour sometimes supercede's one's life is beneficial to society. This mechanism is not available in modern society.
Second, on the possibility of adventure and exploration. I claim it is difficult to find places on Earth that are unexplorable through books. It's probably impossible to sail across uncharted waters or come across lost cities deep in the jungle. On this point, I happily welcome evidence to the contrary.
I have minor disagreements with your other refutations, but with the two points above I have some emtional attachment.
-Erasmus