Nvidia has a huge say in what the manufacturers do, they can simply refuse to sell the cores to them!
There was already a ban on software overclocking >1.3v, but EVGA dodged that with the hardware EVBot.
Guess Nvidia didn't like that much.
They're shooting themselves in the foot marketing wise IMO. On the other hand it allows them to sell more 680s as the limits prevent the 670 from stomping all over the 680, and the 660ti from stomping the 670, etc. etc.
I can safely say that I won't be buying anything Nvidia (new, anyway) any time soon.
Admittedly, I wouldn't be buying a new GPU any time soon anyway.
EDIT:
From the picture in the thread (
http://s13.postimage.org/mcu6xgzhj/photo.jpg) the holes are still there. It becomes a simple issue to buy the proper header from digikey and solder it on. Of course, there goes the warranty, which is exactly what Nvidia's plan is.
This is the header more or less, you'll need to cut one pin off.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/87230-3/A26593-ND/353085
2.EDIT:
That said, there are non-solder ways to attach pins/wires there