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Originally Posted by RobertJSawyer
However, it's a truth that the only source for a wide range of major-publisher content is the Amazon store: you want a New York Times bestseller -- or even most of the authors you see in a bookstore or library (assuming their work is available as ebooks at all) -- you do have to buy from Amazon.
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I would say that the *best* source (not only) for a wide range of major publisher content is Amazon especially when it comes to main stream bestsellers. I believe it is well know that Amazon is largest ebook content provider. I don't believe it is true that bestsellers are only available at Amazon. I do believe you have a better chance of finding a book you're looking for on Amazon that anywhere else.
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When someone buys an ebook reader to read novels by James Patterson or Stephen King (or even me) or nonfiction by Malcolm Gladwell or Bill Bryson, to tell them that -- hey, no probs, you can get Jane Austen's Emma over here -- is ducking the question and not really separating myth from truth. 
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Where are you seeing this happen?
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Fictionwise's multiformat books available in Mobi format cam indeed be used on the Kindle but they are principally titles from small publishers or public-domain works.
For a graphic example of the difference, simply go to the main page at http://fictionwise.com. The books listed on the left-hand side are the ones you can get there for the Kindle; the ones on the right-hand side are then ones you can't get for the Kindle anywhere but the Amazon store.
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If they are listed, you *can* get them depending on how comfortable you are with some format shifting options (which I can't really go into because of forum policy). If you research enough, you'll know that very few formats can't be "liberated" for use on your reader of choice.
BTW, I have purchased Stephen King, Dean Koontz and a few other titles from Fictionwise through some micropay deals. These books now reside on my Kindle.
Remember I only listed *some* sources, not all (there are other wiki pages for th so I edit to give a link to those pages). One may even purchase directly from the publishers web site in many cases.
On the whole, one *can* buy content for the Kindle from as many sources are there are available. Some will be better for some things than others (Sci-Fi users seem to prefer Baen.com over Amazon).