JR East doesn't operate the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen.

You'll have to write JR West and JR Central.

Acutally I was also saying that the JR Pass is esentially a "discount ticket" (a good deal discount ticket), and with that there are and should be restrictions from a business standpoint.

Actually if I ran the company(s) I would make it only valid for unreserved sections on Hikari's, and make people pay for the seat reservation fee if they wanted a reserved seat on the Shinkansen... YES I AM EVIL you wouldn't want me as head of JR. OK don't worry I will not write JR to do that...hehehehe
Though thinking, I wouldn't mind paying a "step up fee" charged depending on distance to ride the Nozomi with the JR Pass, this is somthing I think they might be willing to compromise on than allowing full acess with the JR Pass.

I've heard that there are works currently to revamp the JR Pass, though only through rumor and not hard fact.