Tor exit nodes (and the commandeering thereof) are only relevant when you're accessing a public net website through Tor; not when accessing a Tor hidden service. If you can keep your activity entirely within the Tor "system" (basically, if your counterparties have foreknowledge to contact you over something like Tormail, rather than you having to "come to them" on a public site) then you'll be protected pretty completely.
...though, if it's something you actually care about, making that Tor connection from an internet cafe in a distant city can't hurt.
I think a better approach than tor that we'll see in the next few years will be a readOnly private "tor" box that you can hide on any network with open wifi. The Raspberry Pi is the perfect platform for this.
Such a box would be running tor and only visible on the Tor network. You'd SSH into it over for and then have your own private exit node.
All you need to do is drop a couple of these in places where there is power you can piggyback off and a wifi signal you can piggyback off or a network you can patch into.
Also those people you are referring to is the majority of the public i.e. your parents, grandparents, friends etc.
If your entire life isn't centred around the internet it's easy to see why online privacy isn't a huge concern.