In My opinion, Heres the story.
Microsoft is a public company, to keep the price of the stock high, they must make money. They needed to sell an Operating System, Vista was not quite ready, but they released it and it was never a big success. A few years later with all necessary improvments they released it again, but it was called Seven. Many people who had Vista said that they should have Seven for free, but Microsoft said no. What they did was have a prebuy period, and they sold Seven for $49.99 3 months before it was released. That is how I got mine. It was never stated, but I think that was to aplogize to those who had bought Vista.
No doucments or proof to back any of this up, but that is my opinion, and the facts surrounding it.