But I'm somewhat amazed how many fragmentation questions, posts, articles, and more that I still see on a regular basis. Shouldn't this be a low level feature of SQL Server that just works? In 2008, or I guess SQL 11 now, should there be any reason for a DBA to monitor this and write custom code to ensure that it's fixed on a regular basis? Should this not be something built into the system?
It's sounds like what we need is something like an 'AUTO REORGANIZE INDEXES' database setting, and then something similar to the Lazy Writer process that sits in the background and performs online incremental reorganization of index pages (a handful at a time) during periods of relatively low resource utilization.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho