If I follow you, I don't think MS and Apple are the problem here. Storage vendors are going to use the lowest common denominator because of all the older hardw

If I follow you, I don't think MS and Apple are the problem here. Storage vendors are going to use the lowest common denominator because of all the older hardware out there that wouldn't work with a newer filesystem. And most of the people buying USB thumb drives and whatnot are just going to use whatever the drive comes with.