A former fellow Sony employee called me to say, "Aren't you glad you didn't get a PS3! All your private info would be out."
As I had debated back and forth for a long time between the two HD consoles.
I think the harm is how long the general public remembers it. I had a Wii gaming friend laugh at me and say, “what? The ones that catch on fire?” when I told him I was getting an X360. People remembered the catchphrase ‘the Red Ring of Death’ long after it wasn’t a problem. (They even ask about the new model X360S.)
It also depends on if someone comes up with a catchy name for the PSN downage. RROD has a cool ring, and people repeat it. Plus the total amount of damage to people’s privacy – which is yet to be seen.
“Oh no! Not the Sony Anon-A-Net?”
(Remember the SAAN of 2011-2012?)