The Journal quoted people who are using the practice, please don't miss that. I suspect they hope it will just go back to business as usual, hoping the judge won't notice that it's not just Microsoft, and it's not just vaporware. The user's needs are secondary, if they are ever really considered in more than an abstract lip-service fashion. The need to preserve their right to exist is primary. Control is the currency.
Innovation seems to be irrelevent.
Sporkin is definitely on to something. But it goes much deeper. Vaporware is just a tactic. The strategy behind vaporware is FUD, an acronym for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. The FUD strategy was perfected by IBM in the 60s and 70s, and has been adopted, by all kinds of technology companies, of all sizes.