All very good points. The third one is the only one I would have thought was an obstacle, a majority of the programs out there save out to older versions. As for plugins, if the feature wasn't available for the version you saved the file out as, then I assume when you are using the older version of Max you wouldn't have the non-existant plugin installed. Compilers, I would have thought with as old and ancient max's code is that there would be no surprises there.
But the fact probably is that something on your list or another reason is in affect here, otherwise I would think someone would have written a plugin to do this
So as jaded as my opinion on it is, there are probably some legitimate reasons for it. But I imagine the #1 reason is the 'Board of Investors'! LOL
Great Wish Item!