Well, someone finally stepped up and wrote that article. The one where he/she puts a different spin on the same initiatives in hopes of better adoption. And it was none other than Roy Osherove. Like some sports that are a game of inches, so is software design and testability.
The article is everything that most folks in the industry know about but were afraid to mention or unable to put into a lighter context. Good read at: http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2008/09/20/goodbye-mocks-farewell-stubs.aspx.
All the tooling that came from TDD were intended to drive people into the “pit of success” as they say. Unfortunately, it meant a much steeper curve that most weren’t willing to adopt. There is a funny inertia with masses; even if the given situation is bad (albeit there may still be progress, I didn’t specify good or bad..), an old saying holds strong. “If it ain’t…don’t fix it”.
So by removing as much overhead and putting a spin on the terms, the aim is to drive the masses to those similar goals. Does it mean a smaller “pit of success”? Sure. But it also means the social aspects are really put to the test.