A flaw in the poll is that there's a four hour gap between 4 hours and 8. I get anywhere between 5 and 6 1/2 hours, depending on how its being used.
Also, by autonomy, do you mean just hitting play under Browse > Songs and letting it go for the max, without messing around with Playlists and whatnot? I think that's what you mean. Anyway, if so, then yeah... I get about 6 1/2 hours.
It's a shame, really. My old, original 5GB iPod would still be going strong at 8 hours. I could even use it for two days, without recharging (hour commute/lunch hour/hour commute home/working out).
Now, even with light use (2 hours or so per day), if I don't recharge nightly, the 3rd Generation 10 Gigger will be dead quickly on the second day.