In fact its ability to isolate faulting apps is excellent.
I think its ability to isolate faulting apps is a little too excellent. Often times, Vista will report that an app has hung or is not responding and should be closed when it is simply performing a rigorous task. This leads to calls where the user keeps complaining about a crashing app, Photoshop or Quark usually (although Quark truly does crash very often). Often times in my experience, Vista is simply being impatient, and conveying that impatience on the user (who really doesn't need assistance in this aspect). *face palm*
What really sucks is that XP is a just-fine OS as well.. but if you try to config a system on Dell now with XP it is an EXTRA $150 (!!).
It is a secret to no one that Microsoft offers incentives to OEM vendors who comply with their policies. I'm sure no one here, including yourself is surprised about this. If the OEM vendor doesn't comply, they will suffer serious repercussions in their ability to compete with other vendors who do comply. Whether this is a bad thing, or a good thing is completely relative to your perspective.