since changhai has gone AWOL, i called vmware and eventually spoke with a member of the fusion technical support staff. i was told that changhai is still at the company. i have no idea why he's either not seeing these messages or choosing to ignore them, but i'd love for him to have the courtesy to reply if he is getting them or for any other vmware employee reading this to nudge him and ask him why he hasn't and report back here.
anyway, i was told that internal ticket 1079086 is still open, but the gentleman i spoke to said he couldn't even tell me when it was last updated since it's internal. he did say he'd update the ticket so that the owner would know that i called in to check on it.
i recommend that anyone experiencing this issue who has a support contract call in and open a case to see if they can get any info on when this might be fixed. i don't have one and refuse to open one just to try to get vmware to fix an already-acknowledged bug.