We are getting away from the topic on hand, so I will conclude this excursion with this - you make the assumption that companies do not make strategic mistakes. When they get big and powerful, it is easy to become arrogant and stop listening to their customers. Companies and customers benefit each other, and the interesting dynamic is that customers want the company that helps them - succeed, and when they see that company go the wrong way, they may start complaining. Companies should see complaining customers not as malcontent, but as customer concern with direction of company (divergence between company direction and customer needs). Companies do leave the market when the market gets crowded, or they can no longer compete in the market (competence, strategy).
My concern is that the practice I have been doing (putting executables into runtime folder on CD/DVD ends with version 8.5, which is not officially supported in Windows 7. It was NI that told me to do this as an option when they went to LabVIEW 5.1 long, long ago. This has worked for me up to version 8.5. Now this 'feature' is taken away from me, and others as well... is NI listening?