>Great point actually, if they do it. Wouldn't that make folks wonder about why they don't tout the native database capabilities for 98/ME/WinNT? Why would it be so good for CE but not the others? Sure, we know why but might this simply add to the confusion?

Because MS is still actively pushing MS Access for the end user and small developer apps, perhaps? Another marketing conflict - less than VB/SQL Server, but still a conflict.