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Hmmm ... You want to slam Apple for letting users convert CD audio to MP3 but you want to praise Amazon for offering MP3 files.
The point is that all the tracks that Amazon offers are downloaded directly as mp3s, whereas iTunes tracks with DRM are downloaded as AAC, then you have to burn them to CD (which involves converting them to WAV if I'm not mistaken) and then rip them back to mp3s. There are a couple extra steps there. Now multiply that effort by all the tracks in your library that you purchased from iTunes and it makes more sense to just use an iPod instead of trying to use another player. Therefore using Amazon (or for that matter any non-iTunes store) makes it practical to use non-Apple hardware players.
