General observation

Point of view is everything.
A caveat: Photoshop is one of the greatest programs ever devised. the greatest thing to happen in photography since the invention of photography. Learning to use Photoshop has been the greatest experience I ever had in photography since the first time I looked through the viewfinder of an SLR. One person’s bloatware is another’s useful new feature. However there is a credible case to be made that CS2 is really CS1.x.Filters alone should not constitute a new version of an expensive software package. Hey, Adobe has cash flow issues like everybody else.
"Smart objects," which is a great, indispensable feature for those who create composite images, is more than 10 years overdue on the Windows platform.. I think "smart objects" is the only truly ‘new" feature in CS2 for photographers; the rest of the big changes in CS2 are really just filters.
In truth "Smart objects" is really nothing more than object linking and embedding, which was introduced by Microsoft in its original form back in the days of Windows 3.x. Excel and Word running on Windows have been able to do this in some form since the early 1990’s which says alot about Adobe programming priorities vis a vis Apple and Windows. This is truly an ancient technology for the Windows platform that Adobe has finally decided to use. I know that the implementation of Smart Objects is not identical to the Microsoft model of object linking and embedding but the concept and the OS support for the function have been available on Windows for many years. IMHO Adobe is many years late to the table with this dish and it is likely due to Applecentric programming.
D**n you Steve Jobs!
Much of what CS2 adds has been available as plug-ins from a variety of vendors apart from the Vanishing point filter, which is again very useful, at least for me, but is just a filter. There is nothing in the otherwise useful new lens/distortion filter that is not available elsewhere, including some free plug-ins and the Adobe raw converter. The improvements in the RAW converter are evolutionary, not really a true upgrade. The "smart sharpen" filter is also very useful compared to the "unsharp" filter. But it is not indispensable and there are independent sharpening options which some users feel are superior (some also cost as much or more than the CS2 upgrade, like the Nik sharpening tool). The same goes for new noise reduction tools in CS2.
A substantial part of Photoshop is devoted to web and graphics designers and not directly relevant to photographers but one pays for this as part of the price of Photoshop. I would be happy with CS2 devoid of that part of the program, which I do not use and have no interest in learning to use because I do not anticipate designing complex web pages. Unfortunately Elements, at least the last version I tried to use, lacks support for some of the more complex layering functions of Photoshop.
Anyone know when CS3 will be out?