It's a safe bet that the reasons behind dropping the original hardware design were not based upon whim, but basic sales figures and cost per unit. There is virtually no potential to effect sales of PS2 games as the PS2 is still available.
BC is clearly less of an issue for people who have waited to buy a PS3 as the majority of later adopters are simply waiting for lower prices and a greater library of games, particularly PS3 versions of the franchises they bought during the last generation.
As far as cost per unit goes, and I'd like to find some thing tangible to confirm it, but the cost to manufacture the 40GB units is allegedly around $400 currently due to reduction in components and reduction in cost of components. When a console uses many custom or newly developed technologies, this is the type of price fall one would expect to see as it has always been in the past when coupled with a greater rate of production and sales.
By dropping the earlier SKUs which were more expensive to produce, not only is Sony losing less per hardware sale (key importance), but they are also saving money through streamlining production (fewer models) and distribution (again having fewer redundant models that do nothing to boost sales). New bundle/limited edition SKUs are a different situation. Key word limited, second, targeted at a specific audience (fans of the franchise being bundled).
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