Saw this today, was thinking this could help speed up a 8 CF card read. http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Professional-Workflow-Thunderbolt-LRWHR2RBNA/dp/B00KYK1KZK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1431914821&sr=8-2&keywords=thunderbolt+card+reader

I'm wondering if the Thunderbolt would be a big difference.... I wonder if the CF card speed would throttle back the same as USB.

I doubt you'd see much difference unless you were streaming from several cards at once

The big question I have is how long Thunderbolt will be around now that Apple doesn't use it for the Air any more.

Technically it's a good interconnect, but I don't know that it's gaining much traction and, without the Air building volumes for it, it will probably not get really inexpensive any time soon. From a financial point of view I'd stick with USB.