The problem is (or what I think the problem is), the game developers work with the 'default crappy stuff'. It's a valid approach, but since there are more ignorant 'experts' than you think, most of the codec packs contain obscure codecs that are considered 'superior' over those 'crappy default windows stuff'.
Over the course of time, the 'person in hurry' way of solving codec problem is to install 'yet-another-codec-pack'.
