Hey Slimboyfat,
I think your conclusion is dead on and that there will be a major and dramatic change to the Organization/JW theology & practices at least as late as 1934 (if not sooner) but not because that date has any special prophetic meaning.
Here is my reasoning:
First, there is one remaining belief among Jehovah's Witnesses which presents a "ticking clock". This belief is current though only mentioned upon occassion. In a nutshell it has to do with the belief that many of the anointed will still be alive at the start of the Great Tribulation and through to the final war of Armageddon. This follows from the understanding of the scripture "but on behalf of the Holy Ones, those days will be cut short" which is understood to reference the time of tribulation and a cutting short of that time for the sake of the anointed.
Thus JWs have created a ticking biological time bomb because JWs coincidingly believe that the 144,000 anointed class was for all intents and purposes "sealed" in 1935, that date evidenced by the focus of the preaching work turning to the ingathering of the Great Crowd. Except for the "limited provision" of some of the anointed who "fall away" being "replaced" the current number of anointed is pretty much it.
If most of those were "sealed" by 1935 then they are today over 70 years old (much older of course since they couldn't just be babies in 1935.
As we all know there are about 8000 anointed presently (in fact I would not be surprised if that number fell UNDER 8000 at this Memorial count).
Anyone can do the math from the above and easily understand that either JWs are right and there is less than 20 or so years left or, more probably, this whole belief system is in error and these two beliefs above will have to be discarded. That is the first point.
The second point, which follows in part from the first is that so long as the belief that the "anointed" are not being replaced, it is only a matter of time before ALL of the anointed (aside from those few "young" replacements) are ALL DEAD due to old age. Thus at some point, no later than 30 years hence, JWs will have to face that fact and change the theology that the anointed/Faithful and Discreet Slave/Governing Body are "leading" the visible organization while physically on earth. There is no way around it, except to 1) change the whole belief or 2) The Great Tribulation/Armageddon does in fact begin and Jehovah's Witnesses are right. Place your bets.
The third point is one of more general nature. For the first time in its history (as you note correctly) JWs do not have a specific date or even a time period to which they can hope to be the start of the GT/Armageddon. This has been the case for the past 10 years, since 1995, when the Generation Doctrine was dropped and its psychological effects upon the Witness community has been profound.
Simply put, JWs are in a slide towards reaching a critical mass where their entire present belief system as officially espoused will be in diametric opposition to both their observed reality and the impulses of their internal psyches. This has already started and it is the reason for the falling off of meeting attendence and lack of turnover in JW generational families with third sometimes even second generation JWs rejecting the church/religion.
Adding to this is the INTERNET which is serving as a catalyst for this change by providing the free flow of information and the possibility of social exchange with fellow Witnesses that also harbor doubts and desire for change from the old model.
I believe that these changes, this Revolution, will occur much sooner than 1934. Interestingly, I did a little bit of research and have discovered several independent but correlating indications that 2012 may be a year of special significance. (I won't get into that on this thread.) But, it would not be surprising to me if these other indications were also tied to this dramatic anticipated change among Jehovah's Witnesses and that the things that I am speaking about happen by or at that time.
-Eduardo