What are the chances that an email entered during an incomplete sign-up, where you enter your email but drop out of the process before giving your mother's maiden name or whatever else they're going to ask down the line, still gets spammed with "product updates and announcements" and added to their user database?

asdfkjlhasdfj@asdfkljasdfklh.com just got an 8-digit launch code and is now subscribed to said announcements (sorry if that's a real person), but I'm never going to be able to enter the launch code. Are they still subscribed, even though the launch code will never finish?

I agree that I'd much rather see a single-page form with a half dozen text boxes and a "Submit" button, and I'd hope that nothing gets committed serverside before I click "Submit", at which time all of the \<form> data gets POSTed.

The older form simply asked for a username and a password in addition to the email, so I'd say "you have no idea what else they're going to ask for" is a bit overstated.