WordPress.com users probably don’t care what’s under the hood to power their stores. If they did, they would likely be more inclined to go the self-hosted route.

I’m tempted to think: this pretty much sums it up, whether we’re talking e-commerce or just blogs. (Except for the VIP program, though.)

Regarding Automattic being in a unique position I agree, but on the flip page isn’t that the issue?

If Automattic had accepted one or two open source e-commerce plugins into .com’s repository without —let’s say— a long-range bidding process up front, this comment thread would likely get flooded with anything from “but X would have been the better choice” to “ours was excluded on purpose!”. Not to mention questions of how they would need to get the company involved into further maintenance of those plugins afterwards.

Aside from technical reasons, I think it makes sense for a company like Automattic to opt for a rather “Solomonic” road (at least for now) ensuring none of the key players in open source e-commerce with WordPress feel disadvantaged. And days of e-commerce at .com have only just begun.