It's business, plain and simple. You have guys who program 3D animation tools for high-end applications, where else are they going to go? Frankly, I was glad that they went to Discreet and fixed Max's horrid IK system. Max 4's new bones made it much easier to do character rigging. Still not as nice as working in Maya, but it's pretty darn close. In fact, because the IK systems are almost identical, I can create relatively similar rigs in both programs that work the same way.

Just remember, tools are simply tools. It's the implementation and workflow that differentiate them. Max may have a lot of features similar to Maya (and vice versa), but it's all in how you actually use them. For my money, Maya is a much smoother and elegant workflow.