Seriously, microsoft needs more money? Don't make me laugh. And as for them making msn a paid service; they will never ever do that. People will just flock to a different IM program. Just look at the history of other things that went that way, like Napster for example.
So I absolutely don't agree with that part
for the sound; even if I disable it, people will still try to send such sounds, and then become angry at me because I have disabled it. (that's how it works... just look at SMS; modern day girlfriends will get upset if you don't SMS them often enough. Just one of many things enforced upon you by society
)
For file transfers: I think more people would want such a feature than sounds. But stats cannot see that, because it isn't part of plus.
On the subject of stats, how were they generated? Automatically, or did the user have the option to disable it? If disableable, I'd say that the stats aren't that objective, as it are the more advanced users that disable it, and they like other things than kiddies with sounds
But that's just speculation
edit: I also just installed the file transfer plugin.. now I'll have to convince others to do the same so I can actually use it