the number of certificates that had no reason to be trusted in the first place (being self signed)

I trust my self-signed certificate.

Then:

Yes, but even high-end enterprise hardware is not up against those limits yet.

Maximizing profits is not the goal of a publicly traded corporation -- only maximizing shareholders' returns. Sometimes those goals stay aligned, but it's almost inevitable that they will start to diverge at some point.

They wanted it to work on XP and Vista.

The grandparent's example of TJX is clearly a counter-example to your claim.

I understand where you're coming from -- thinking in terms of the technological costs of properly "cleaning up" the mess -- but much like a major oil spill, dollars spent on a little PR spin are 1000x more cost-effective than actual cleanup efforts and completely avoid the consequences that you describe.

You have an awfully grandiose idea of what the typical company's IT operations looks like.

You want an app ecosystem? Here you go.

They are one of those companies that will come in and help you throw a "gold party", so I'm pretty sure your heirlooms are melted down as soon as you hand it over.

That's what Craigslist is for.

Or a bit of chewing gum.