6 years is not a limited duration, and most get green cards after 6 years and become part of the large pool of available workers in America.
H1 numbers have been down ever since the economy headed south and there has been less demand for staff.
The numbers are high if you place them up against the number of jobs that are available and the number of workers that are unemployed. If the number was zero I would agree with you.
H1B folks are now free to change jobs easily, which removes the motivation of hiring H1B's as cheap indentured workers.
The "new" law is obviously not as well understood and requires legal advise (as stated in your link) before an H-1B should or could make a move. Beside the issue here is numbers, there are simply more available workers than jobs. So why do we need an H-1B program at all?
I don't think programmers relocate to the US just so they can get paid below average wages.
Compared to India and China the wages are very high.
4. The cost and delay in processing H1 applications is never taken into consideration in these articles....
Large companies get bulk Visa applications approved and lay-off Americans and hire H-1Bs at will.
Are you an immigration attorney? Sounds like you have a vested interest in this program.