drupal as product

I've transferred this discussion from the forums at http://drupal.org/node/572734, where it had died a death. Here's what I wrote there. Any thoughts?

Following all of the stuff at Drupalcon Paris about Drupal moving from a service to a product that is friendly for end users, I was having a discussion with a friend of mine who has used Drupal in the past. He isn't a developer or coder but he's not non-technical, either.