Arduino crystal freq. Why 16Mhz instead of 20Mhz?

Wouldn't be any issues with Software Serial or anything else with this increase in speed?

Yes. UART timing, delay(), delayMilliseconds() and millis() timing, as well as the bootloader I mentioned before.

The bootloader is the showstopper, as it requires a hardware programmer to change it. One of the big attractions of the Arduino is that you don't need the external hardware programmer, and I would guess most Arduino users don't have one. Combine this with the fact that most folks don't need the extra speed, and you just don't see a lot of interest in changing the clock rate.

There's a 20MHz bootloader out there, and programmers of varying cost. If you really need 20MHz it's within reach.

-j