Are FPGA's getting too complex?

FPGAs aren't getting too complex, but both Altera and Xilinx have gotten so caught up in the high-end that they are forgetting a lot of customers don't need a massive Stratix part. In fact, In the last five years at my current job, we haven't used anything more powerful than a 3C40 (though that is about to change) We build test sets that often just need a blob of logic to speak some non-standard protocol, generate a waveform to a DAC, packetize the output from an ADC, or implement a custom algorithm faster than a CPU can do it.

I am more worried about the disappearance of the *QFP packages than I am complexity. Virtually all, save one or two, of my designs are 4-6 layer boards with either a 144-pin EQFP or 240-pin PQFP FPGA. I believe a lot of designs could be done on a 4-layer board with a QFP, but once you start talking about BGAs, it's next to impossible to break out on a 4-layer board. 6-layer is doable, but to get at every I/O pin you generally have to go up to 8-layer, which increases cost. Given how often the technicians manage to burn out some of these boards, that can get pricey fast. Then, there is the fact that BGAs are hard to repair or replace. We have a BGA machine, and we are looking at getting a reballer, but we only have one tech that knows how to operate it. With QFP parts, any of the technicians can replace a faulty part.

I know these packages are as old as the hills, and they slow down designs because of the massive inductance in the pins and bond wires, but there are still a lot of shops like ours that don't need 200+ MHz I/O, fancy transceivers, etc. Thus, I'm really hoping that either the C3/C4 parts stick around for a long time, or Altera releases a QFP version of the C5 at some point.