Hi John,
I too am glad you are following the thread. That feature alone would be a sufficient reason for me to upgrade from 8 to 9 once it's available. The Open Dialog has no business trying to help the user--even if it did, which it doesn't.
I would add, since I'm using my edited version of XFRX to do reports, I've got pretty good control of reporting, so that isn't a big incentive for me to upgrade.
I've added my 2 cents to the wishlist topic on this issue. Thanks for listening.