It's better than the alternative, which is glitchy games that fall through the cracks and then can't be fixed. I mean patching isn't an ideal situation, but at least it's an option. Overall it's usually a problem with the online, which is a unique problem on consoles since most past systems didn't have online gameplay. So yes I'm glad they have a way to fix netcode problems and it would be better than them releasing crap online they thought was good until the buying public in it's enormity fucked it up and then developers say "oh well, nobody likes patches so let's just leave it". There's also an instance like Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts where the writing was unusually small and basically unreadable on SDTV's. On previous consoles that would have been it. Live with it. Now Rare was able to address a problem they didn't know they had with the game and give gamers a solution.
Overall it does cause a bit of laziness on the part of developers, as can be seen from SOCOM: Confrontation and Gear of War 2, but it's still a benefit to have the option for problems to get fixed post release to make games better so they don't have to live as duds.
Tag: Became a freaking mod and a complete douche, coincidentally, at the same time.
