I agree that Connect has at most one use: For those Connect items where someone from Microsoft has said "No, we're not fixing it", you can see that you're hosed and find what other workarounds regular users have posted.

Note that I've seen comments from Microsoft about "will be fixed in the next version" multiple versions ago when I can still replicate the bug, so I don't consider those comments worthwhile - Microsoft clearly does not re-update the comment when they change their mind.

As far as I can tell, Microsoft, like many corporations, devotes developer time based on Sales and/or Marketing desires, and fixes as few omissions, errors, kludges, or bugs as possible, much less makes improvements users actually want.