Doug,
I can't speak for the rest of the MVPs, but I answered questions on UT long before someone nominated me for MVP and will continue to answer them after 12/1. In fact my first response to being nominated was disbelief - MVPs are GURUS, they write books and edit magazines, for goodness sake.
MS is losing a tremendous source of good will - not the MVPs, but all the people they have helped, whether it's VFP or PowerPoint or NTServer. You made some excellent points on how difficult it will be to provide the same quality and quantity of service.
Thanks,
Barbara