I echo what Stoofa said, these are specific fixes to specific problems, thus they want to control their release to stop the OMGZ Must Patch0r Every Thingz In S1ght !!111one brigage from breaking their machines.
Microsoft's attitude with the hotfixes it holds back is pretty sensible - we only dish it out if you experience the problem described in the KB article. Why apply the hotfix if you don't have the issue? You don't ask for medicine unless you're ill do you? Applying a hotfix just for the sake of it could well go & break something else & then they'd need a hotfix for the hotfix causing more frustration and problems. (admittedly M$ don't always get it right - see the 916089->927891 debacle!)
I agree the process may not make sense on every occasion - it took me ages to get the HD Audio hotfix out of them (KB888111) but doing it this way rather than everyone - especially end-users - being able to go & apply hotfixes willy-nilly is preferable. Plus as Stoofa says Microsoft provide value-add for the hotfixes by monitoring their success or otherwise thorugh direct contact with the clients who requested them.
At the end of the day if you really want to get hold of the hotfixes you will (from 3rd party sites liek in another current thread) but there's no guarantee of their quality - hell they could even be trojans/malware masquerading as hotfixes!
