"Each of these four items were advertised features of every SSL vendor on the market since day
one."
Absolutely. I wouldn't want to cast aspersions on any low-cost cert company by suggesting that
they don't do that for the $10 you pay. But now they are being audited to make sure that they
are doing it, it seems that prices have gone up. That's a strange thing. Still, that doesn't
make the fact that the vetting is verifiably being done now any less of a good thing.
Bottom line: EV is only extortionate if you _were_ actually getting what you thought you were
getting before. Do you think you were?