You do realise that would probably increase the amount of customer support cases raised, from confused/angry users - which is the exactly the opposite effect that Dropbox wants.

For the majority of typical users of Dropbox (and HN certainly doesn't count as typical), this is a net win in every way. They get the latest bugfixes, and they don't need to worry about all this downloading installers rubbish that seems so last decade.

Also - if you were deathly worried about Dropbox and what they could do - firstly, why would you install their client to begin with, considering it's entirely closed-source? Secondly, why would you use a cloud storage provider like them to begin with?

You talk about "losing control" - why not spin your own Dropbox? (I suspect many people, nerds included, underestimate the sheer amount of engineering and technical man years that go into something like this). However, for the Stallman's among it, it may make sense.