Rather I'd like to see some real live examples that people can play with. You would not buy a car without test driving it, so I'm not sure why we would expect any less from our software vendor.

Here are some ideas...

ArcGIS Server: Web ADF

Let's see a real application with large, complex data model - maybe based on the Local Government data model. Show us an editing environment customized for non-GIS pros who don't know or care about versioning. Throw in some imagery from Image Server and make sure access is managed via ASP.NET security. Sounds like a tall order, but consider that Local Governments are a prime target market, and it's not that unreasonable.

From a developer perspective, I'd love to read about how it was built, the best practices which lead to clean, maintainable, testable code. And a glimpse behind the scenes at the hardware that's powering it. This does not need to be totally public - make people login with their ESRI Global Account, or limit it further to EDN subscribers. Whatever - but let's see the beast in action so we know what we can expect.

ArcGIS Server: Geoprocessing

Although the "GP Solves all Problems" rehetoric of last years DevSummit has somewhat died down, it would be cool to see a real GP model - doing more that a trivial buffer operation or a hill shade on a limited area, running in ArcGIS Server, accessible for EDN developers. Get really daring and have it do some raster processing. 

Make the model itself downloadable so we can see how you've built it, talk about how you have optimized it, what hardware it's running on, and what it's really doing.

ArcGIS Server: OGC Services

Fire up some WMS/WFS services that have real data volumes behind them (say the state of California).  Then let the community hit it with whatever client they want to use and report requests per second, data volumes and CPU utilization. If that level of access is a little broad, show us how to limit access via a and restrict it to EDN subscribers.

ArcGIS Server: KML

If you've got the OGC Services up, add on the KML service. Let people see what can be expected with this service. Of course it's not going to be as fast as Google, but be transparent about the hardware, and load, and I think that the user base will follow along.

ArcGIS Explorer "Tasks"

With the launch of ArcGIS Explorer, it would be nice to see some real "tasks" that do something a little heavier than reverse geocoding or returning the Zip+4 for a point. How about a site analysis within an AOI? Or a network trace? Something that's actually using the analytical power of ArcGIS. Something burly because that's what people are going to expect/want when they drop cash for the backend ArcGIS Server software that will support it.

 
Overall, I'd really like to see demos that set realistic expectations. To date, the ArcGIS Server 9.2 hype has been reaching snake-oil levels:

• Publish maps by merely thinking about it!
• Shed pounds by sleeping!
• Code? Nah - use geoprocessing for everything!
• Cures hemhroids & rhumatism!
• Run ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE and your web site all on one box!

Some reality will help everyone manage expectations.