>>I'll answer this last one later with some examples of others

That's fine, but while you're at it, can you identify another "profession" that allows self-interested vendors to anoint community leaders? I don't mean managers or leaders within an organization or people who passed an exam, I mean community leaders with all that entails.Also consider whether the same behaviors that are celebrated in IT cause protest in healthcare if people perceive that physicians could be incentivized to tow the vendor line rather than best interests of patients.

IMHO it's time for developers to toss vendor tea in the sea and take command of their own professional interests. Community Leaders ought to be appointed by acclaim rather than by vendor. The vendor role should be to listen to the leaders and ensure that the vendor does what the community decides rather than constantly releasing Visual Firefly products that nobody asked for but that familiars are relied upon to blog about in glowing terms.