I agree, your soapbox position may be in accordance with the purist's view on how HTML SHOULD be used. However, the behaviour of dropdown menus to take the person to the page when they choose it has now become pretty much a standard across the web. And pause to think about it for a minute or two - the average person would take that behavious to be logical - they select the option they want, so why should they have to then click on a button? One action rather than two.