I wanted people to realize that Kobo probably doesn't want to listen to hysterical users, which is exactly what some people sound like.

But if you want to take away the forced changes message, I'd just like to point out that the decision was made long before Kobo was dreamt up. The decision was made when consumer electronics switched from masked ROMs to EEPROMs and flash memory. It is a design decision that allowed vendors to make changes after a product was produced. It was a design decision that allowed vendors to ship incomplete and buggy products with minimal fear of the consequences. It also bred an expectation for feature updates from consumers. If you don't believe that, just look at how enthusiastic people are to get iOS and Android updates. Or Kobo updates for that matter, until they discover their pet bug/feature hasn't been fixed.