Quote Originally Posted by nugglets View Post
They can make a more customizable UI without having to open the proverbial Pandoras API Box.
Hmm. Might be nitpicking here on exactly what a customizable UI means, but it's possible that could meet my personal preference for filling in the current UI's gaps. Though it's hard to imagine a flexible system without incorporating something like LUA. But even if managed that... the rise of unofficial addons, I think, shows there's desire for these other things. Making the stuff that isn't shady in concept able to use an official API gets people away from those programs that also incorporate stuff that is pretty shady.

You also don't have to look just at WoW. TSW in particular has some great UI addons for party management and many other things, and EVE online has had great success planning utilities and such using its API as well. Neither of these games had the problems WoW had/have. TSW, for example, lets you have addons such as friends list with notes and auto lot/pass on dungeon loot, but doesn't allow any automatic firing of abilities or, AFAIK, even auto turn ins. For RPers, there's an addon that lets them view character backgrounds and other story related information about someone. And so on.