Before: in order to watch Netflix, you needed an HTML browser AND the Flash plugin.
Now: in order to watch Netflix, you need Internet Explorer 11 on Windows. Firefox, Chrome and Linux users need not apply.
Where's the practical, workable value of this evolution?
Even worse, as CDMs aren't really meant to be implemented as browser plugins, we'll end up with sites that work only in a specific browser, or in a specific OS, or even in a specific OS under certain circumstances.
They'll want, sooner or later, to use office, to embed a movie clip into a powerpoint slide, to collect the pictures from their digital camera, to open large zipped files, to send a properly formatted email, to read a DVD with video clips from their 2004 holidays, to play a game beyond the limited subset allowed by touch controls, to make a video chat while they're working on a document, to access that web site that requires Flash or even Java.
And even when the stuff they want to do can be done on a tablet, the user experience there is clumsy and the applications are almost always limited - many essential features are outright missing because the "app" designers give for granted that the user will use a desktop PC in order to access them.
I can merely walk away or choose not to be around the person wearing Glass...
Not if both of you want to be in the same place.
or perhaps kindly ask them to remove them or otherwise disable it.
And they're free to ignore your request, to lie to you about the thing being disabled, and/or film your reaction and upload it to YouTube.
People are upset not because government agencies are doing the same thing, but mainly because there's not a damn thing citizens can do to stop it, or prevent massive abuse.
On the contrary, people have the right to interrogate the authorities about the images they're collecting and the scope of the collection. They can propose laws regulating, limiting or even preventing the collection. They can elect politicians who are against it, and vote against, or no longer vote for, the politicians who are in favour of it.
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.