From my personal observations there are some people who get lots of problems with their 360 and others who don't seem to get any. From as far as I can tell, my friends who keep their systems in a well ventilated places laying flat have almost no problems (even with frequent weekend play sessions lasting 15+ hours [yes, sad, I know]). The only 3 of my friends who have had disk scratching problems all have their systems standing vertically. The people who seem to get the RRoD bimonthly keep their systems in small spaces, and while nothing is directly blocking the vents there isn't any circulation through to keep the air surrounding the console cooled.
I realize that this is no excuse for bad design but the people who are constantly having their 360 break down are simply not doing anything to prevent it. I realize its fairly stupid that you can't safely use the console when its in the vertical position when thats how its advertised but I would think that the fact thats its not even that stable in that position should have kept most people from doing so. (even a minor bump can bring it crashing down)
On another note, to the people who say that it is a design defect that it will scratch disks if moved, I ask if you would say the same about a normal computer? They are essentially the same thing on the inside and everyone I know (literally no exceptions) would be horrified at the thought of moving a computer (not a laptop) while it was even just plugged in.
