What I would like to know:
How many SketchUp programmers are on the 'Development Team'. I think there might be a misperception that since Google owns the product that there are a large number of people committed to SU development...and hence the expectations of serious, comprehensive enhancements to the program with each new release. If I was to hazard a guess, and measure the 'Development Team's enhancement contributions in a year, vs one lone ruby programmer like TIG, or Fredo, or thomthom...I'm thinking not many. Sorry for the slap Google, but these guys are seriously kicking your butt.
How many SketchUp 'Pro' users are licensed, and are there in fact enough users who will likely pay for an upgrade to warrant investing the time and money into the program that we 'Pros' keep asking for. It would seem to me that the majority of users are on the 'free' version of SketchUp...while kudos goes to Google for their generosity on this one, I would suspect it serves little to motivate them to respond with enthusiastic gusto to 'Pro' users requests.
How many individuals are there who use 3D modelling software for visualization that have little or no interest in advanced rendering. Certainly the number of increasingly amazing photo-realistic rendering software offerings doesn't indicate a lack of interest in this area does it? I always thought the two kind of went hand in hand, and apparently a lot of 3D modelling software developers do as well. Isn't that a forward looking reason enough to give attention to better memory handling, more robust UV tools, and at least some consideration to modifying meshes without having to draw hidden lines on planes?
I love SketchUp, and Layout too for that matter... but currently I love the Ruby developers more.