I think the inclusion of the memory card is a great inclusion for the system. 256MB may not sound like much, but game saves don't really take up that much space on the 360. Looking real fast at my Madden 08 franchise and it only takes up ~5MB. Plenty of room to save stuff on the memory card. At least you get some good Arcade games(for free), although possibly a pack-in game or slight price drop (~$250) like others said would really be great for new buyers.
I picked up my core system as a bundle (w/Blue Dragon) and later decided to get the hard drive for it. It would have been great to have a mem card included with it when I first bought it though. If BD hadn't been included I would have just gotten the Premium system, though.
BTW That picture is not a pic of the "core/arcade 360" as it has the silver/chrome dvd tray 
starcraft: "I and every PS3 fanboy alive are waiting for Versus more than FFXIII.
Me since the games were revealed, the fanboys since E3." 
Skeeuk: "playstation 3 is the ultimate in gaming acceleration"
