Both 33/28/0 and 1x/4y/3 are extremely powerful DPS specs. Both rely on scorchx1/fireballx7-8 rotations. 33/28/0 scales extremely well with crit rating (ignite + spell power = 245% crits), and 1x/4y/3 scales well with +dmg (105% +dmg on fireball). 33/28 gives you the option for semi-legit arcane blast cycles, while 1x/4y/3 is all about the scorch-fireball rotation. 1x/4y/3 also provides 3% spell hit if your spell hit gear is lacking. I find that if you're hit capped, 33/28 is just as good, if not better.

Deep arcane is acceptable if your gear is trashy, but it gets outdated extremely quickly.

At the moment my gear is pretty trashy (unbuffed- under 500+dmg, about 16% crit). I want to get out of my low damage frost leveling spec and into a spec that I can grow into over the next month or so while my gear improves- something that won't make my guild recoil in horror at my inability to dps effectively.

Is the arcane superiority so significant for bad gear that I should just spec into it now and go fire in a few weeks? Or is it mostly a matter of a few dps anyways? In other words- can I "grow into" a deep fire spec or is it better to just bite the bullet and go Arcane temporarily. I expect to have competitive gear in a few weeks at most and I really loathe respeccing =(

Edit:
Last few pages of the huge thread is answering my questions. This is what you get for posting before waking up. Sorry for the clutter.