To me the whole point is that once you use computer technology you're not restricted to using only one single method to designate a location in a text. It shouldn't be an "or" choice but an "and" choice. The question Amazon should have asked is: "What methods shall we offer our customers in addition to the page numbers they have been used to all of their life and will expect to be there, to find their way in the ebooks they pay us for?" Frankly I have few illusions that the main reason for their choice was that it's the method that requires the least effort on their part because location numbers can simply be calculated and require no human intervention/effort and human effort equates cost a.k.a. "money".
The fact that page numbers are not accurate across different paper publications of a book is not important. Obviously with paper books there is no alternative. The page size and font type and size will dictate spread over how many pages a text will be. But with computers? The possibilities are endless. First of all it will be no problem at all to keep the same page numbering between different editions of ebooks as long as the core text with the same page break codes doesn't change. Added introductions at the beginning? In print Roman numerals are used to separate numbering of parts of a book. Roman numerals could be used in ebooks and reading devices/software too. But you'd have to think of it and implement it before production. What else is there? Negative page numbers? That would also be an option. If Amazon releases a new edition with a foreword by someone will they have a method to keep locations the same in the core text as in the previous edition?
But hey... you can do anything(!!!) with computers. And e-readers are just (dedicated) computers. So at the bottom of the screen of whatever device you use it could(!) say:
Preamble - Page 1 (etc.)
Introduction - Page 1 (etc.)
Prologue - Page 1 (etc.)
Chapter 1 - Page 1 (etc.)
Chapter 2 - Page 32 (etc.)
Epilogue - Page 212 (etc.)
Or even:
Epilogue - Page 1 (etc.)
But also variations like:
Chapter One - How it all started - Page 1 (etc.)
Geddit? You are free to use any way you (the hardware and software designers let you) choose to tell you where you are in an e-text. And any of as many ways you want (the choices made by the hardware and software designers let you).
You know how on DVDs you can select a Language audio track? Or a commentary track? Or subtitles in many languages? Or even an extended version with some of the cut scenes put back in? Worried about inconsistencies with regards to page numbering? How about the following?
You open an e-book on your device which would have a settings menu with a page numbering sub-menu with the following choices:
Page numbering:
First edition - 1984 - Hardcover
First edition - 1984 - Paperback
Second edition - 1995 - Hardcover - With introduction by the author.
Second edition - 1995 - Paperback - With introduction by the author.
Selected works - 2008 - second of three books.
E-book - Chapter/Paragraph.
E-book - Chapter/Sentence.
E-book - Uniform Page Numbering (a yet fictional standard page numbering method).
E-book - Locations.
Notice how these e-book standards can do away with editions linked to a particular year.
And it would even be possible to show several of these at the same time:
Footer, Left: First edition - 1984 - Hardcover.
Footer, Centre: Chapter/Paragraph.
Footer, Right: Locations.
As far as I'm concerned this whole discussion is a non-issue if only hardware and software developers (and the business managers that employ them) would have an adequate vision on what the transition of print to e-book should offer us.
Unfortunately.... "The incompetents are running the Earth." And we risk getting stuck with bad choices made by those in the positions to make these choices for us.
