I agree with you, they are needed.

But even a month after launch their app market's state is still abysmal, crucial apps are missing.
I'm not saying the Surface is bad or anything, I understand what they're trying to do, I just don't agree with the way they're treating developers.
Windows always had great developer support, like the free VS Express editions, etc. Where they fail is that it make it hard for developers even to submit apps for the store. They should make it at least as easy and painless as Android - you just sign up, pay the $20 and you can publish as many apps as you like without limits (with some automatic checking).

MS's biggest problem is the app gap (strictly talking about the store now), they have to make all attempts to close it as fast as possible - and by making it super hard to have apps published is the stupidest thing to do in this intstance.

Being a developer I view stuff from that point of view. I don't have a preference to any of the big players, I develop for the OS that allows my apps to have the largest exposure.
I won't develop for Win(RT) until it has a wide adoption. I won't even consider jumping all the hoops until then.