Wow, Microsoft definitely deserves some kind of award for this. Shipping a tablet, with own hardware design no less, with a 41GB OS is certainly an achievement not every company can accomplish. (sorry I'm just baffled how you can fill up 41GB)
I cant help but think that a better option would have been to offer a "recovery usb stick" for extra 50 bucks which would contain the recovery data and save the extra space for the user to make the device more attractive to the buyer.