Sqlserver 7.0. Was it then that the feature was introduced to configure automatic index generation?

Nice feature in the RIGHT hands, but Microsoft either forgot to mention it or emphasise it 🙂

So some heavily hit tables ended up with a large number of indexes, which was great for read performance but when you wanted to add records as well, everything slowed, because of locking.

Hey, you saved a DBA salary and got a slow database! Fair exchange?

When everyone else says something is not their responsibility, it becomes the DBA's. When there is no DBA, people feel the difference when something goes wrong but hey think of the money you saved not the money the disaster has cost the company. Got to get your priorities right 🙂