“Now you could have a program that hides the ten zillion esoteric controls that a pro could tweak to better or more powerful effect, but it's damned tough to do.”

Bingo. Making things easy is really hard – especially if much of your code is 3rd party bolt-ons. At some point, Joe and Jane McDuffer will realize that they can’t use any of the great new stuff stuffed into each new version, so why bother to upgrade. Kinda like politics – take the base for granted too long and you end up unelected. Can it be done? Sure, just like the figures can be done but it would take more money than SM is likely willing to spend.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken