Leland,

Don't let these other commenters get you down. You are approaching this through the eyes of a domainer, which is a different view of most people :)

I don't think Automattic needs to own BBPress.com (and they can't anyway if someone else has it, develops it, and has a legitmate claim to the domain), but I think they should consider changing the name, whether that be TalkPress or something else.

As to your point about typo traffic, yes, many people use direct navigation (i call it natural traffic) to a domain. Thing is, when they get there it is obvious that it isn't what they are looking for so they will search for it. The times this is a problem is when direct navigation is going to a competitor's website, or that of a similar product or service. That is when you NEED to own the .com.

Great post, as always!