WindowShade is still a feature not incorporated into OS X. I think it is only a matter of time.
On the other side (of the fence) you have shareware developers who in many cases have far superior products. That is what makes it worth the cost, as well as the fact that it is "missing" from OS X. Much of the shareware for OS X is there because it is "missing" from the OS.
I am sure that if Apple incorporated the WindowShade feature into an OS X update, it would not be as nice as WindowShade X by Unsanity. Sherlock 3 is not anywhere near as nice as Watson (yes, I am a Watson owner). Another good example, and please excuse the plug, but Path Finder is a much richer Finder experience IMO (I help with the development of Path Finder). So in that vein I do not think Apple should step on the toes of the very loyal developer community. And it looks like that happens all to often.
Originally posted on Breaking Windows.
Article comments
1 - l.m. orchard
See: Daring Fireball: Command-Tab
Most notably: "...when a utility is designed to compensate for a hole in Mac OS X, the developer should not expect the hole to remain unfilled by Apple forever"
And: NSLog();
"You don't see Unsanity asking for "credit" for Labels X, do you?"