Great topic!
I also noticed alot of people moving to freeride. I think some of it is just the trend right now and some of it is that many figured out XC racing isn't for them. They would rather go out and challenge themselves outside of racing.

As for the XC courses not being tough enough, I have to strongly disagree. Some of the UCI courses are as gnarly as stuff I've seen in "freeride" mags (not including the big drops, of course).

Whatever gets people into biking is cool with me. If people get into it because of freeriding or xc or whatever. That Hans Rey (?) rode all over the world introducing all kinds of people to a new way to look at the bicycle so he's really cool in my book too.

Personally, I love xc!