I have not read the entire thread (maybe I'll have time for that when I retire), and I haven't been to Siggraph for several years, but I think I get the jist of things.
1. Autodesk aquires Naiad and announces integration into Maya.
2. Someones asks about plans to integrate Naiad into Max to which response is "don't get your hopes up".
3. That, (along with recent years of upheaval in the ranks of Max dev team) sends the max community into pandemonium over concerns they are going to kill off Max.
My question is what does this mean for the Arch Viz industry? I think the writing is clearly on the wall for Max in FX and games. If you are in one of those industries and are still using Max you are probably way behind the trend. However, for Arch Viz, the integration of Max with other ADSK tools (Revit of course, but also, Civil3D, AutoCAD, etc.) makes it very hard to imagine how they would, or even could, kill Max for OUR industry. I am left wondering if Max will survive as an ArchViz tool primarily, it's really been going that way for a while. Having said that, I do not like the idea of Maya getting all the juicy upgrades and Max left with improved interoperability upgrades. Even if the truth is, most arch viz pros do little with sophisticated fluid dynamics, we still want access to those tools. That's what we didn't like about the Max/Viz relationship, and I don't like the direction this is going either, but I don't think think Max will die... at least not for us.