Oh, stop trying to make this an edition thing. Our group starts its Hommlet 4E campaign in a week or so. You guys aren't really so enthralled as to think that if you like a game then that company that makes it can do no wrong, do you? WotC has made some incredibly poor decisions over the last few years (some would say longer) that have adversely effected the lives of the people who wrote the game you are apparently trying to defend by stifling policy discussions. There are ways to run a company, or division of a corporation, that do not require a business model with built-in annual layoffs. Companies in this small industry who value their employees in a manner that avoids cyclical layoffs as a matter of course are to be commended, IMO. Others who have business practices that leave employees and their families out in the cold should not be shielded by smokescreens of fan-edition-favoritism. Someone might not be able to completely change a corporate policy by expressing outrage, or simply posting displeasure like I do while pointing out a better way and companies who follow it, but it sure beats the alternative of quietly accepting what should be considered unacceptable. I feel incredibly bad for the employees who have lost their means of income from WotC this year just before the holidays, and each year that it happens, and for their spouses and their children who depend on that income. I think it is a shameful business practice that need not be. If you two wish to defend it, feel free, but don't try to twist it into an edition war because I'll have none of that.
