[UPDATE 9:54 PM 10/03/2011] A few corrections and clarifications:

• First off, the Outlook Personal Folders (.pst) file format is no longer proprietary. It was proprietary when I migrated out of Outlook 7-8 years ago, but this is irrelevant today. My example was inappropriate. Instead of saying "Microsoft makes it difficult to get your data out of the PST file" I should have said "People don't know how to get data out of proprietary software".
• It appears that I wasn’t clear about the point I was trying to make. Am I addressing a technical issue? Or is my point that the majority of today’s computer users are too obtuse to attempt something that is not spelled out for them in three easy steps?

I thank James Fee (@cageyjames) for correcting the factual inaccuracies and pointing out the vagueness in my post.

What I was trying to say is the following: System vendors, knowing that the vast majority of their users prefer “EASY” over “HARD”, make it EASY to stay, and HARD to leave. Important ammo in their arsenal is the proprietary data format.