Are you telling me I can't go to Blizzard's website and buy one of their games directly?
Are you telling me I can't go to Adobe and buy one of their suites directly?
How about Corel?

I call BUNK on that statement. Apple is not FORCING you to do anything with the Mac App Store; they've only made a much more convenient location for users to find applications they may never have known about otherwise. That's quite a difference if you ask me.

Oh, and I'm using Mountain Lion on an '07 iMac after using Lion on it for over a year. Again I say, BUNK!