Ian - I can understand how you would feel if the simulcast is messed up like it was yesterday, but you have to think about it logically. Since only the popular shows get simulcast, there are many people watching the show. As such, because of the division, many people will watch, say, FOX. And therefore, they would see American advertising - American products and services. Many of those aren't available in Canada, so how the hell are they supposed to reach their target audience? With the simulcast, only Canadian commercials get shown.
As well, Canadian channels pay to license the episodes, so obviously they want to get revenue back from it. With the audience split, the commercials won't reach all the people watching, and therefore they'll get paid less.
Also, maybe it's the shows I watch, but I've found these sorts of accidents to happen extremely rarely. In fact, I don't recall a messed up simulcast like this for a while..
And finally, I didn't think you'd be the type of person that would get so emotional about 10 minutes of TV which you could easily catch later. But, you know, who am I to say?