Sam,

In answer to your questions:

1) Access is a way to ease into Enterprise Manager for those that are not SQL Server savvy. EM has many capabilities relating to administration and security that would confuse a SQL Server tyro.

2) You, yourself, acknowledge that Access reports are VERY easy to put together. It's a very mature reporting tool that can produce excellently formatted output with very little effort.

3) Access data entry forms are very easy to deal with, too. With a connection to SQL Server data someone familiar with Access can readily provide a menu-driven, forms-based SQL Server application without having to go through the travail of writing something in ASP or ASP.NET. The Access extensions to Visual Basic for Applications makes for powerful and relatively easy development using SQL Server data.

4) The Access query by example tool is easier to use than anything provided in EM.

I'm not saying that EM isn't a terrific tool -- especially in SS2005 -- but Access' native ability to connect to SQL Server data makes for very friendly application development and querying without the learning overhead of EM.