I empathize with the Steam purchasers. I purchased Rage through Amazon and chose to read the reviews before opening the box. It has already been returned for a full refund.
Carmack's comments regarding the PC's inferior nature as a gaming platform seem strange. The only way it makes sense to develop for a 7-year old console is if your only interest is to make money. For years, Rage has been touted as new technology, but this is likely just marketing PR for potential licensees. This isn't what I would have previously associated with id, but that is clearly the direction they're moving in. I fully expect the backlash will result in very poor interest in their next offering.
I hope Bethesda is listening. I would hate to see Skyrim suffer a similar fate, though it is much too late to do anything about it now. That game too was developed on the XBOX 360, but I think more effort (or as Carmack puts it, "development effort") has been put into the PC version to make it look better.
id (Carmack) would develop a game for the iPhone if they thought it was the leading platform for games. It's still a stupid avenue to show off new technology if there's something more capable.