I still believe including a BR reader in the PS3 was a good move by Sony.
It definitly helped BR win the war against HD-DVD ( when you see how many stand alone BR players were sold there is really little doubt about this).
It will probably contribute to extend the life of the PS3 by a few years.
And it makes the PS3 games a lot harder to pirate ( due to the current high cost of burning BR discs).