ahref:
What you said makes sense, except that limitation does not exist if they use up to date hardware. The mega came out ages ago then there was the mega 2560. Now we have the DUE.
... And more expensive. Not every project needs a $10 microcontroller, especially if I can spend ~$1 on an ATTiny and accomplish what I need to with a simple "kludge"
Seeing as the overall goal of Arduino is to create prototype systems that may warrant actual development I don't see why the additional detail in data(i mean floating point data) availability should be limited.
I've always seen Arduino as a entry point to get people into the world of microcontrollers. If I want to actually put something into development, it wouldn't make much sense to spend 10x the amount on the chip for additional software support that can be handled with a "kludge" like this:
const int precision = 100;
int psuedoFloat = myFloat * precision ;
sprintf(buffer, "My Float: %d.%d", psuedoFloat / precision , psuedoFloat % precision);