I remain convinced that the overwhelming majority of those who tether-without-paying are those who not so much "need" to tether, but rather:
a) The phone is capable of it;
b) It's a way of proving one's uber-geek capabilities;
c) Taking of a service without paying for it causes no moral qualms;
d) "If I steal it from AT&T, I won't have to buy my own 'net access";
e) "Screw them!"
Or any/all of the above, in various combinations.
It's a service. If you need it, you obtain it. If you need it badly enough, it does not matter what it costs. If you don't need it, it likewise does not matter what it costs.
For myself, there have been times tethering would have been *extremely* handy, like sitting in JFK airport with no free wifi nearby, just bloody Boingo. My choices then were to try to create a report on the phone with WinAdmin (remote desktop app), or buy a day's worth of Boingo. I bought the Boingo. The value of report was worth the eight bucks (or whatever). I expensed it -- heck, the cost of the StarBucks and some vague-foodlike bagel-thing was eight bucks or so, and I expensed that as well.
When tethering becomes reliably available, not cobbled together by installing obscure ipcc files, performing SIM-card coitus and/or lying/stealing, I'll look at getting it. And probably paying for it, *if* I decide I need it enough.
I fear we are getting our various body parts all aflutter over a *want*, not a *need*. They are not the same thing, you know.