[nhebb]

While I generally agree with what you've written, I still think it's odd that Microsoft has never included many features in Explorer that are the main selling points for 3rd party file explorers, e.g. dual pane view, bulk rename, toolbar customization, and so forth. I understand that Microsoft may not want to undercut ISV's, but easy access to file operations should be intrinsic to an operating system.

[Mavrik]

Probably because the userbase of 3rd party file explorers is so marginal it's not worth alienating less tech-savvy users.

The common theme from OldNewThing blog is that they usually don't cater so much to power-user audience, since power-users mostly aren't happy with what MS offers them and go for 3rd party tools anyway.