While I think the poster took his position a few steps to far, on some level I initially agreed with him.
The reality is that while there is a clearly different attitude here at Stardock, you are selling in a cynical world and I would argue that when I initially heard about "Impulse" the last thing I had in mind was that it was only a simple dowload manager (which I would argue that it is not just that...).
For whatever reason, I believed that it was yet another piece of software like so many others that opens yet another door on my machine for someone, anyone, to get inside. I would further argue that in it's initial introduction to me, that it's capabilities were vague, and I compared it to so many other pieces by other publishers and that's the last thing that you want to present to the gaming world. We're paranoid enough as it is, and here is yet another piece of code to consider.
Consider that regardless of what it really is or isn't, for some, given the history we've endured elsewhere, a piece of code that "goes and determines what you have or don't have" is already enough of an intrusion for it to not be trusted.
Frankly, I'm learly about installing ANY software on my machine, regardless of how passive it is. The less I have to install, the less I have to worry about and being that it wasn't initially required, with it now being required to maintain the status quo, the playing field has changed and therefor the status quo isn't...
At the end of the day, (so far...), I think I'm OK with Impluse. It does seem to be "passive", it does seem to do as advertised (although I still say it could have been presented much better...) and seems to get out of the way when you're done with it... (It does go away when I shut it down, right???)
Like I said in the beginning, I believe the initial poster took his position to far, but if you completely discount the concept, I believe you're missing the bigger picture... Everyone seems to feel all warm and cozy here, as do I, but remember the forest where you've planted your tree, it's full of dark and scary places with wolves in grandma's clothes...