That may well be, but the fact remains that if there's a shockwave.pof anywhere on the default VP's it will be IMPOSSIBLE to use 2D shockwaves with the default VP's.
That means that anyone wanting to use 2D shockwaves will be out of the support range because they will be forced to modify the default mediaVP's. Or, in other words, if we include the 3D shockwaves into the default set of VP's, we effectively drop the 2D shockwave support altogether, leaving it to individual users to go through a relatively complicated procedure of opening the VP where the shockwave is (effects IIRC), remove the POF file, and overwrite the default mediaVP.
This is a fairly complicated procedure for anyone who doesn't already know how it's done, and it will effectively cause either or both of the following:
a. cause the emergence of an alternative VP set where there is no shockwave.pof, which will proceed to cause mix-ups in support topics
b. alienate everyone who prefers 2D shockwaves and can't edit the VP files themselves (and a lot of threads requesting help regarding rudimentary VP editing).
In terms of pros and cons...
3D Shockwaves in default VP:
+for those who can accept the 3D shockwaves, a minor advantage in amount of VP's to deal with
- for anyone else, a major disadvantage in the procedure of changing to 2D shockwaves
2D shockwaves in default VP's:
- for those who want the 3D shockwaves, a minor disadvantage in amount of VP's to deal with
+for anyone else, a major advantage of not having to EDIT any default, FSU-provided VP files.
Note that 3D shockwaves as default provide a minor advantage and major disadvantage, while the 2D shockwaves as default prived a major advantage and minor disadvantage.
Additionally, I would not necessarily hold the voting result of this poll as the highest authority, seeing how there's already been multiple mix-ups with people not effectively knowing which are supposed to be 2D and which 3D effect. As much as I adore democracy, people who are not familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of both options don't really have the pre-requisites of making an educated choice in this kind of issues. After all, 3D shockwave sounds much more advanced than 2D shockwave, so it should be an improvement, right? Except that it isn't, in many ways - the angles issue being the first and foremost, and the drastic change from retail effect style being another. I would even go as far as calling it a mod as opposed to an upgrade, but that's just me. I do not suggest dropping it from the VP's altogether, but it seems to me that using that as default will cause far greater problems than using 2D shockwaves as default.
My stance in this is the following: There are people who want 3D shockwaves (2/3rds based on this questionable poll) and there are people who want 2D shockwaves (1/3rd, a rather significant minority even based on this poll).If we drop either of those options from the supported solutions, we will alienate one group. Ergo, we should provide official support for both. This is only possible at the moment by using the 2D shockwave as the default option, and offering the 3D shockwave(s) as an option.
Another way is, of course, not to include any shockwave in the default VP's and offer both 2D and 3D shockwaves as a selective download, but that's even more complicated than just using the 2D as default, so I'd rather not see that happening.
Finally, it's very good to take simplicity of use into consideration, but sacrificing customizability for it is the wrong way to do it and will cause far greater problems in my opinion than having to answer a few support questions occasionally - and I don't think add-on shockwaves would be a problem with clear instructions. Definitely they wouldn't produce as much problems as that debackle with effect alpha channels fixed with those 710-VP's.
...and, finally, a remainder that this conversation would not be in any way necessary if we had a command line option to enable 3D shockwaves, which would be the optimal solution for both devs and users - users could select either option based on their preference with much ease, while devs could spare themselves the trouble of maintaining support for more VP files.