Choosing a "Component" for new issues really does help some of us browse the issues. We have components called "Unknown" and "Other" so there should be no excuses for not choosing one.
Actually, it'd be even better if David or someone with the right karma can look into this: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/v3.3.2/issuefield_configuration.html#Required+Fields Let me know if that doesn't work and I can dig some more. Thanks, --tim
