Sure it is. Try and keep the big picture in mind. If you want to use FMOD (or BASS or whatever), you still can. You just need to get the license for it yourself.
That's not "just" what you have to do at all. Compare and contrast the playing of a mod: In B3D it's one line; In Max you either have to license and hook into a dll, author a Max module that depends on said dll or (if you want a free solution) go away and learn how to knock up a sound server then supply its buffer with the output of D.U.M.B or somesuch. Exactly the kind of piddling around that many folk adopted B3D to escape!
Having the "freedom" to bang my head against a C compiler in order to get Max to do what B3D does "out of the box" is hardly moving forward in anything but the most academic sense. You, I readily accept, might see things differently depending on what it is you want to do today, but it's hardly conentious (or whinging hatemongering) to recognise that the shift in focus represented by Max has left a percentage of Blitzers cold; It's simply the stuff of interesting discussion.
Personally I wouldn't have Mark change direction just because Max doesn't quite suit me to a tee - not only would/will a strong 3D module easily outweigh all other concerns, but I remember the resistance to B3D going DX9 back when it was seemingly on the cards. To turn around now and say "well, actually, you should have done that other thing BRL" would be a piss-take of immense magnitude. :D