What do you think the average Joe on the street that walks into a camera store cares about?
actually Canon does trumpet newly patented lens ideas on lenses all the time. remember the big deal they made over Hybrid Image Stabilization (H-IS) on the then-new 100 L Macro. and it's good business to play up all the new technology in whatever item you're selling, it's been demonstrated that consumers are (wrongly) easily impressed by the quantity, not quality, of features and specifications. between two identical items put up for sale, consumers will more often choose the one that has a longer specification list posted.
So that's why tamron lenses come with a 20-30 character long string after each lens?
And don't forget DO, UD, Fluorite, SC, SSC, MC, and the II added to really, really minor updates (i'm looking at you, EFs 18-55 IS II).
I don't care how many UD or Fluorite elements I have in a lens, but if I know lens A is sharper, faster, shorter, and lighter than lens B, and costs a bit more, it's kinda nice to know that more Fluorite elements is probably the reason for it. Then any future lens that comes out touting more Fluorite elements can be presumed to be better than without. Still, it's worth waiting for the reviews to confirm that's the case.
But if lens C comes out with a new or controversial feature, some people steer away as a matter of course, and it may take a few reviews for them to get swayed back (like if a new DO lens comes with non-glowing/swirly bokeh, noone's going to believe it until they see it).
