rabbitoid: I feel the idea is to open more possibilities on how a person buys his or her PC.... I mean "windows" is not a Microsoft idea, they just borrowed the idea off others and adapted it for the PC.
One valid counter-arguement comes to buying a PC from a second hand shop. Often the discs can be missing... so, why is it that the main option in the case of a computer needing re-installing that the customer has to buy a windows disk? I know there are other options, but Microsoft have made it hard for others to offer an alternative(s)