One more tidbit about the auto ratings... when making smartlists with WMP9, it gives you two "ratings" fields that you can use: "Auto Rating" and "My Rating". That way, if you want to make a smartlist containing your 4- and 5-star songs, you can make it so that "My Rating = 4, 5". That way, the automatically rated songs won't get mixed in.
I don't have an opinion either way... the auto rating seems to just be a substitute for play counts, in as much as: Auto Rating 3 = unrated, Auto Rating 4 = playcount > 0. Something that I can learn to live with or ignore, no worries.
As for other aspects of WMP9, I like the interface that they use for making smartlists... it's more user friendly. However, the smartlist interface for iTunes3 is even better. If JR is taking ideas for a new interface for smartlists, I'd suggest cruising to a CompUSA and taking a look at iTunes3's smartlist interface... it's very nice and extremely user-friendly.
Graphical, clickable ratings would be great, but you guys know what I think about that. I'm patient.
Also, for what it's worth, I think that it is important to look at WMP9 and iTunes3's strengths and try to match (or top) them. Why? Those programs are free. Now granted, MC can do more than they can, and better... but sometimes, feature usability or the whole UI can make the difference in a user between a free download and an online purchase.