I believe it was done out of necessity rather than a marketing strategy. Consider the most expensive aspects of the PS3...
Blu-Ray? Can't get rid of that.
Cell? Can't get rid of that.
So, they're forced to cut other features to save money. The cut features offer less of a savings-to-benefit ratio than cutting Blu-Ray or the pricey Cell technology would, but again, cutting those two things would be impossible at this point.
What we're seeing right now is Sony reaping what they've sown. They added expensive, integral technology that nobody cares about, so when they found that their strategy wasn't working and that they needed a price cut, they were forced to cut features that people actually care about (like backwards compatibility and memory card readers.)
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
