i too noted the same thing. MSN will become worthless unless they apply filters to filter crap and if they do, they'll become a mirror of big G and lose whatever uniqueness they offer. A no-win situation.
It depends on what side of the fence you are on. I have an affiliate program with 1600 members and have no problem letting my affiliates get high rankings if they deserve it. But without knowing what keywords you use I can't really see why affiliate listings showing up high in the SERP are a bad thing. 1/7
I have seen affiliate links on the first page on MSN for certain keywords. You hardly ever see that in Google or Yahoo.