I can't speak to the Samsung situation specifically but I was a huge original Motorola Droid fan but haven't bought a Motorola device since because of their practices post-Droid.

I'm personally more concerned with locked bootloaders and the like because as long as the latest version of Cyanogenmod can easily be installed on my phone, I'm good, but for non-hackers being able to officially upgrade to at least the next major version (assuming it releases within 1.5 years of the phone) seems fair.

Motorola has since reversed course on the bootloaders and is being bought by Google, so I'll probably give them a second chance someday, but your basic point is solid -- these decisions do impact whether or not the consumer will stick with your brand in the future. I've seen it from friends as well as from my own situation.

Screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me.