I think that the divergence is on the issue of what exactly "the right
thing" is.  There are two perspectives on this: the users, and the
developers.

FreeBSD obviously has taken the users stand, essentially that whatever
works for the user is the right thing.  For NetBSD, essentially
whatever works for core developers is the right thing.  So both camps
really seem to have major flaws in their thinking - that one quality
precludes the other.  But such is the nature of a volunteer effort;
the project is defined by the strengths and shortcomings of its'
volunteers.

I think in the future NetBSD will continue on as the OS programmers
choice, but unfortunately there aren't nearly as many OS programmers
out there as there are clueless users - hence I don't expect that
NetBSD will ever catch up with the user base of FreeBSD.  Probably
some years from now, once the core team has lost interest and energy,
NetBSD will quietly become an intellectual curiosity along the lines
of Nachos or Sprite, but not quite as cutting edge for it's time.

I love NetBSD despite what I've said here - but I have to be
realistic.

-- 
Dave Cornejo                                There is nothing so subtle
Fremont, California                                     as the obvious