Lack of Entry Level Wildlife Lenses through Nikon

There has been a distinct lack of "love" by Nikon for entry-level wildlife/aviation photographers. When you look at the Nikon catalog versus Canon, you see the deserted wasteland that is the 100-400mm range, or the 200-500mm range that could be filled by a 100-400mm f/5.6 lens or a 200-500mm f/5-6.3 lens armed with VR and AF-S. Certainly we could go Tamron or Sigma for those lens ranges, but considering that there is a legal fight going on between Nikon and Sigma over VR/OS proprietary rights, I'm kind of wondering what the fallout of that is going to be.

Nikon versus Sigma Legal Filing of Proprietary Rights over Sigma's OS similarity to VR

Right now our only choices are either going 3rd party manufacturers and risking less than quality glass or sticking with a long-in-the-tooth 80-400mm D ED VR lens or slapping a 300/4 with a TC-14EII or TC-17EII which pretty much is the same as throwing your money at a Tamron 200-500mm f/5.6-6.3 Di LD (IF). For those of us who don't have the financial resources to throw at a 400mm f/2.8, 500mm f/4, or 600mm f/4 prime, a 400mm f/5.6 or a 500mm f/5.6 prime would be a god-send. A lot of the amateurs have gone Canon because of the attention shown by Canon manufacturers to the amateur crowd. A Canon 100-400mm f/5.6 IS L is probably one of the prized lenses that amateur wildlife photographers who shoot Canon have in their inventory. Nikon might do well to court that demographic for those of us who have steadfastly and faithfully decided to stick with Nikon for better or worse.