For the web, I strongly agree. I like to site back, a few feet away from my monitor, when the font is 12pt or any less I have to lean in.

13-14pt are nice, and there a bunch of sites with body copy set in 15pt+.

It's easier to create a visual grid with smaller font blocks tho. But.. that just benefits looks.

Indeed. Those are the font sizes I'd go with doing print typography. On the web I almost always use 14-16px for body type. It's much easier to read.

This is exactly why my[1] app (which will be going into beta Any Day Now) uses clear, legible, 12pt text, and it supports zooming up to a shockingly large font size without breaking the layout.

Doing this has had an additional benefit: We can't just cram everything on to the screen, and instead need to think more about whether or not we're showing information that is truly important.

[1] Okay, my-plus-cofounder. :)