Why you have to call for a hotfix

Josh Ledgard's description of getting a hotfix online is fascinating to me because I've frequently come across those KB articles that seem to speak directly to my problem, and then turn coy with "To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix."

Like Josh, I don't want to call anybody. But I've always wondered why some things are downloadable and others are rationed out by PSS. Josh gives the answer in the comment thread:

The root of this comes from a policy that went into place when some windows users downloaded some bad hotfixes and that caused a lot of complaints that we needed to be clearer about what's been really well tested and what was just published as a hot fix. However, today, I don't beleive that our developer customers really need this form of babysitting as long as we make it clear that a hotfix is not as well tested as a service pack.