Microsoft has updated hardware components. They are not under obligation to support older hardware constructs when newer is available or when they discontinue an older version or other hardware series. They aim for backward compatibility but this is not always possible.
For those with older hardware (yes, even the retail and online stores still sometimes sell outdates hardware) they are recommending uninstalling mouse and keyboard center and using the IntelliPoint Software instead.
I agree with you but both the Sculpt Comfort Mouse, Keyboard and Desktop are not old hardware, they are some of the most recent.
IntelliPoint is the old software used for Microsoft mice and keyboard, right? Which does not work with the newest hardware.
Even some of the most recent have had hardware revisions. If they are extensive enough changes they get new version numbers. Sometimes, even the slightest change will result in a driver that worked before ceasing to work for future revisions. That is what I have seen at least. If Microsoft recommends installing IntelliPoint for some devices, I would think that for those devices the drivers would work on even the newer hardware.
Other than that, I do not know. I tried contacting somebody from Microsoft about this but was unable to get in contact with anyone who could get the information at this time.