a) I just bought a 9800 Pro
b) Valve knew they weren't going to make the 30th before I bought my card, which means they could've let me know
c) Valve was so proud when they announced Half-Life 2 with a release date that was not just before DOOM3's, but WAY before DOOM3's. How could such a confident company miss such a wonderful release date? Could it be arogance? No...
d) jackmh is right, HL2 will be very buggy. You can count on it. And the funniest part? It will require the latest, buggiest drivers from Ati!
Maybe they should change the name of the game to Double-Buggy.