I guess I am confused by all of this from Microsoft. CU's originally were supposed to ONLY be applied if you were experiencing a problem that was addressed by a CU as CU's originally had a disclaimer stating that fixes within these were to undergo more testing to be rolled up into a SP. However, it almost appears that CU's are now patches to be applied instead of a rolled up SP anymore. The last time I opened a case with Microsoft on a SQL 2008 issue the technician suggested applying the latest CU eventhough it had nothing to do with my issue.

I wish Microsoft would at least officially state one way or another what CU's intention is and if and when we will get a SP4 for SQL 2005 or a SP2 for SQL 2008.