I think it's basically a way for Autodesk to get people to stop complaining about the lack of Map interoperability. You say you need Map functionality. They tell you to use FDO. Then it takes you a while to research FDO, figure out what it is, how it works, and then try to use it. By the time you figure out that it isn't really a replacement for Map, the person who sent you on that wild goose chase is doing something else and no longer has to deal with you.
OK, maybe it's not like that. I actually haven't looked at FDO too much yet myself. It looks like a relatively powerful way of extracting data from generic geospatial data (note that it is NOT an Autodesk product, but an Open Source product, although I think it was started by Autodesk). The big problem with it I see so far is that, unlike Map, FDO is an API. So it helps programmers, but leaves the typical Map user high and dry. I have it on my task list to explore it, because I think some very powerful Map-like tasks can be performed using FDO. But it isn't Map.
