Carl & Dennis,
Some members, especially in Canada, supposedly pay for "bandwidth" usage (data flow), and some users are on slow connections. These users pay extra in $ and/or have very slow load-time when photos display in a thread.
There is also the matter of the cost of storage (on Stovebolt.com server). This can be substantial. Who will pay for that?
Finally, if the discussion board software cannot automatically resize photos, none of us want to see our screens screwed up displaying gigantic photos (trust me).
Nonethesless, I agree with you completely.