The cable carriers outbid you for access. If that was "wrong", they should naturally go out of business, right? Otherwise, what you're asking for is an artificial discount for being a cool Internet person.
I take your point about TW Dallas, but feel like that's going to resolve itself soon as HBO GO generates more demand.
I don't want to stick up for cable companies (they are terribly annoying to deal with) but at the same time, if everything cost what HN readers thought it should cost, they'd have to have filmed The Sopranos entirely using finger puppets.
I think the market is going to sort this out within the next 5 years as more and more serious, big-budget productions are going to be shot and produced for Internet venues. In the meantime, I have a hard time arguing that existing media companies should be forced to forgo market rates for their investments. We're only going to get our glorious Internet media future if the market works.
You are in competition with the cable company when you ask to be able to pay HBO directly instead of paying the cable company, and in the sense that the cable company pays more to deliver HBO to you than you yourself would be willing to pay.
This also affects the XBox app for me w/ TWC in Dallas (and I presume elsewhere). HBO GO on your laptop works just fine, but if you try the HBO GO XBox app it will fail.
I have search and searched and I still just can't understand how there should be any difference between different methods of delivery. I am not sure who is to blame, but I suspect HBO charges TWC a different price for more delivery options for its customers.
Edit: Apparently this is no longer the case and now it works.
Also, it's not available with all cable carriers. If I subscribe to HBO with Time Warner Cable in Dallas, HBO Go is not available to me.