Well in all fairness, we don't have to, at least for a while yet. Opensuse 11.0 will still be supported for quite a while and 11.1 for even longer. I assume other distros are in the same position. The move to KDE4 has been troublesome to say the least, but Aaron Seigo explained the need for the radical departure very well in his blog. KDE3 may well be working flawlessly for us users, but the codebase was becoming impossible to maintain. Without engaging in the development of KDE myself, I'm prepared to take his word for it.

Anyway, as you said:

KDE3 isn't dead, it's working flawlessly with quanta 3.5.

Each of us has to decide when the time is right to make the move. If KDE4 still doesn't have the functionality you need by the time opensuse 11.2 is realeased, why not just stay with the version you're using if it's working flawlessly?

Ian