Incorrect.

Real ID is "required" to use cross-realm, cross-faction communication, and was designed to be used with people you already know and trust.

However, there is nothing preventing you from using the pre-Real ID system of "/friends $CHARACTER_NAME".

Precisely. Your name that's on your Battle.net account is used for billing purposes, used to positively identify you in case of account compromise severe enough that you cannot regain access, and a host of other reasons.

And now they want to use that as the positive identifier for you on the forums - forums which might as well be mandatory for getting technical support or customer service, as their email system takes weeks to reply and their phone lines are more often than not unable to take more callers into queue due to so many irresponsible people allowing their accounts to become compromised.

This is possibly the most insane thing Blizzard has ever attempted.

Bingo. I've bought games that I was severely on the fence about during the current sale because they were less than five dollars. That's less than the cost of lunch at the university I work at. It's not something I'm going to lose sleep over if the game turns out bad, or as related to the story and argument at hand, if Steam suddenly winks out of existence and I can not authenticate them.

Cancel the contract and go with who, precisely? Many areas in the US are under, at best, a duopoly when it comes to high-speed options. If both of your options have clauses in their contracts that you don't agree with (i.e. bandwidth limitations in spite of "unlimited" claims), what's your recourse?

I dunno, doesn't most of that free porn require Flash to view? In that case, the point still stands.

The problem is that they do not perceive it as an issue. Even their internal paperwork to employees at their retail stores emphasizes the whole "this is not a problem, do not admit that it is a problem, do not offer warranty repairs for this, do not offer anything free" mindset that they're pushing. For a company as seemingly devoted to the "user experience" as Apple is, this is a laughably embarrassing position to take.

Ah ah, that one was in a case, remember?

Probably. Everyone I know who grew up in the mid-late 80s is excited as hell.