The opinions expressed are exactly the same arguments raised for years about the SD quality. Those of us who have invested in HD are the same people who screamed about sub-standard, overly-compressed SD.
We lost those wars because we didn't have the numbers. That is, the vast public was more than happy with sub-standard, but acceptable to them, SD as long as they got more channels to watch. And even reading the Dish forums, historically, there have been more complaints and cries for increased service in the arena of missing channels than for quality.
So HD comes along and the early adopters are all the picture quality guys. Thus the vast majority of present subs to services like VOOM are people who have exacting standards. Unfortunately, as HD migrates into a mass market service, the very people who undermined our arguments for higher quality SD, become the market for HD.
Excepting now our arguments are even weaker. Because if compressed SD was acceptable to the masses, compressed HD will be wildly acceptable. E*, D*, and the cable companies all know this. We are screaming, but we are not the make or break it portion of the market in terms of profit. Besides, where are we going to go? There is no safe haven.
Until there is an almost unlimited, low cost method of delivering high bandwidth to large audiences, I fully expect all HD providers to compress. It is a tried and true formula. Those companies that stressed high quality over channel numbers were left by the wayside.
For the time being, perhaps our collective weight as being a large portion of the VOOM market will be able to influence decisions. I have serious doubts that it will affect the long-term strategy, but it is worth the fight.