Why did they do it ... why ...???
So my customers whole system is dependant on this little sliver of gold end is it?
Is there another cable of any sort we have invented lately that uses less mechanical integrity in its physical connectivity? If you tried to use this to wire up your Airbus with it would fly into the ground at the first turbulence...

Here with some cut and paste from HDMI training literature...

High Definition Multimedia Interface, or HDMI, as it’s name suggests, is an interface that can carry more than one type of media - namely audio and video, and is able to carry these at high bandwidths - in other words, lots of data in a short period of time.

Herewith a forward from Denon with some FAQ,s around the issues they are discovering with HDMI connectors.

"As HDMI becomes more popular we should all be aware that some bugs still exist with the HDMI format. Denon USA think it is such a concern that they have a special FAQ section on their website answering some of the problems.