Do I disagree? No, Jeff, I don't disagree that the vast majority of people don't use the tool to the full extent possible, and that therefore Adobe has every right to eliminate those users who don't like MacDonalds, or don't drive Fords.
(As a programmer of Apple products for 34 years now, I'm not sure how Application Programming Interfaces have anything to do with code that works fine in CS5 and doesn't work in CS6, on the same system, but I'll leave that alone.)
You're entirely correct that it's a small percentage of people that need to profile their printers or use non-standard inking. Apparently I'm the only one on LL that does.
Photoshop is a wonderful tool, and I admire it as a programmer, and a photographer for 55 years. When I got my first Apple ][ in 1978, I intuited that the world was about to change, and Photoshop has lead the way and been a joy to watch evolve.
CS6 continues that tradition... but it's also sneaking in the "iOS-ification" of software; making it easier for the "vast majority" and to whatever extent that is true, it becomes less useful to professionals.
It's because I care passionately about the software that I hate to see its direction change from professional to consumer. I'd much rather see all the coddling happen in Photoshop Elements, and the CS tools continue to expand toward more versatility instead of less.
But I'm talking as a user, and you're talking about marketing, and that conversation could go on for years without resolution (other, of course, than that the marketeers always win. :-)
I'm sorry to see the change as it lessens the value of the tool, and I'm sorry I bothered to comment on it here. This was obviously the wrong place. (Too many Adobe employees... :-)
(BTW, thanks to you for all your own contributions to the art and understanding of digital photography over the years. As a programmer, I found it pretty easy to understand, but you do a good job of explaining too, and many of your works line my bookshelves. Without your work with Bruce Fraser, I'd likely not have landed a job teaching digital photography at graduate school, nor had my works rise to the level allowing them to be presented at The Center for Photographic Art. I am in your debt.)
That said, I'll still cast my vote for making PS a more nitty-gritty professional level tool, and splitting off the "softer" software for Joe Sixpack. :-)
Now: I'm off to see what I can do to get Roy or Jon to step up to the plate, and make it easier on the 1% of us to make the switch to CS6 !