I haven't read this whole thread so I hope I'm not repeating info but I saw something on why they 'said' they designed it 'backwards', the site design also seemed strange to me: They were worried that if they gave the insurance prices, without getting income information, the prices would scare people off and they would not sign up. It sounded like, they expected a lot of people using the site to get 'subsidized' rates so they wanted income info so they could show the person their subsidized/real insurance rate, instead of a 'generic' insurance rate so they wouldn't be scared off and not sign up.
(They said this on some morning news cable tv station on Tuesday morning.)
Obviously, this is a stupid and lame but that's what they said. I'm not sure what the income limits are but they could just ask if your income is over a certain limit and if it is then give you the generic prices but anyway, it's a government run program so you know what that means.