I think a big part of the problem with the misunderstanding concerning pack-ins is that, since the Super Nintendo's departure from the market, there has not been a significant system-seller pack-in title with a console. Pack-ins for the last decade have been of the other kinds: the "get-rid-of-a-surplus" kind or the "promote-a-new-game" kind. Not until the DS started getting packed with Nintendogs and Brain Age did we see a resurgence of the other kind, and not until the Wii did we see a full revival of the Super Mario Brothers model: packed in from the start, to sell the system from the get-go to the target audience.
Sony did not release any of their systems with a system-selling pack-in, because their business model did not need one. Theirs relied on the sheer size of their library to appeal to the existing game audience. Microsoft simply copied Sony. Nintendo decided to drop pack-ins to allow them to sell their systems at launch for a lower price. Ultimately, this means that we've had a solid 10+ years without the original kind of pack-in: the kind which the majority of people get the system for. So it's possible to understand why the idea of a pack-in selling a system to this degree isn't widely understood any more.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
