Why the obsession with random I/O within the context of SSAS?

As many of you know from the various blogs, whitepapers, and conferences from SQLCAT, there is a big obsession or compulsion toward I/O by various members of SQLCAT. If you're not already familiar with this topic, definitely reference Mike Ruthruff's whitepaper Predeployment I/O Best Practices.

But as could be seen from the SSAS Maestros session in Redmond this week (for more information, check out What is the SSAS Maestros?), there is even an obsession for IOps even within the context of Analysis Services as noted in the papers below