I saw some of the reports from cebit about new motherboards. I've heard some ideas or rumours that nVidia might release their own sound cards, or make the Sound Storm an option in the future. Apparently very few people are taking advantage of it right now. Now to find a way to justify spending the money on upgrading...
I don't think this is anti-competitive at all. As Richard pointed out, motherboard manufacturers have included just about everything else into their boards you can think of. This hasn't hurt the market for add in cards at all as the motherboards usually only include the low end versions anyways. Just look a the difference between built-in video cards and AGP cards. For the average user these options are usually just fine, and power users are knowledgeable enough to add their own.
goates