Is there a reason for not creating a static binary of Kdenlive regularly? It would avoid the hassle for new users of trying to find a recent package for their distro (if it exists) or trying to build from source.

Firstly: probably because distributions only accept shared builds to make repositories smaller. In the end, we are convinced that Kdenlive and Melt will make it to the desktops. It is only a question of months. Things are evolving rapidly.

Secondly: the problem of static builds is that you have to decide when "static" ends. Usualy, it is not possible to make pure static builds because the libraries that you would like to build staticly are themselves shared. So you end-up with a monster in size.

The logic behind free software is to make shared builds to reuse the work of others.

Besides, do you experience problems building or using Kdenlive?

Regarding distro support, surely distros will create proper packages when they wish to include Kdenlive anyway. Some distros already do this. But if you don't happen to be running the latest release of the distro you probably will need to build from source if you want the latest Kdenlive, and it takes time for people to create up-to-date packages. For example, packages for 0.7.4 have just been released today.

Regarding file size. I really don't think this would be a problem for people who just wanted to have a look at Kdenlive. There is a whole live linux image for trying out Kdenlive, why not a static build too?

I understand the benefit of shared libraries in a system, and as Kdenlive gets included in distributions that's how it will be packaged. There are a lot of video editors for Linux but they don't always do what they claim to and they usually expect you to go to the effort of compiling from source before you can even try them out. If possible, if would be nice to remove this hurdle.

If I understand correctly, having a single up to date static binary would make the following scenario possible:
Anyone on any distro could download the very latest Kdenlive and use it immediately without the need for any knowledge of linux at all. (Is that accurate?)

I hang out on the irc channel often and people pop in with various issues. Since Kdenlive is under very active development and bugs are squashed every day, the typical advice is for them to try the latest version. Thanks to the wonderful Builder Wizard this is actually possible for many people with basic linux skills, but it does trip many people up too, and it takes everyone a bit of time to use.