Yep 2-3 million ppl will have to spend $1999 to replace their 4 yr old computer instead of $129 for a new OS that it will come with. Seems like good business sense.
If all 10.6 brings to the table is better stability and more speed for 64 bit systems, then there is little incentive for Intel 32 bit systems and PPC systems to be upgraded.
There are a lot of people still on tiger because they do not think that the features of Leopard are worth 129.
People on 64 bit systems will need something compelling in order to switch to "Boring Cat" if all 10.6 brings to the table is better stability and more speed.
People want flash and new features.
I hope 10.6 brings to the table Bootable ZFS and Resolution independence, Apple was working on both but neither came out in Leopard.