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and end with one sender and one recipient.  But many start with one
sender and one recipient (or one sender, one recipient and one
supervisor) and end up adding a half dozen to a dozen from the team,
group or department who all should or have read the thread from start
to finish to understand what everyone is talking about so everyone is
on the same page.

> Even then, due to how job positions are defined,
> most people can get the context of the
email from only the first reply they read.

And those are the first out the door because they missed something
important or critical to the conversation half way through and they
duplicate effort or look like an idiot in a meeting when asked about
it.

(and this has little to do
with M$ in my opinion.  I think top posting in business would have
come about regardless of Outlook's default settings).

Bull.  Outlook is the default mail client/server for business, both
externally and internally.   That's why top posters can't understand
why it's bad, and why they don't even know they're sending html email
(and why companies like TigerDirect insist on sending their email/spam
using html email even when you let them know that the message is
unreadable in a text reader), or why outlook users can't see the real
url of that phishing html spam (those that are ready to pounce...I'm
not talking about you, I'm talking about the 90%+ that aren't
technically proficient)...

The businesses I've set up mail clients/servers for, their users don't
top post.  That's because they are also using jabber/im clients that
don't top post.  And using unix/linux messaging in shells without top
posting (it really blows some of their minds when they see messaging).
 And in some cases jabber/bash messaging is taking the place of
yahoo/aol im when the person their messaging is across the office
floor or on the next floor, or even more pathetic, it's taking the
place of sending each other messages by printing on each others'
printers because they aren't allowed to use im clients that send
messages outside the network and back in (aol servers/yahoo servers).
And using wikis where they don't top post  Remember, these are small
businesses, not medium/large businesses.