Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm almost positive that hackers were able to do that about two days after the service debuted.

From what I read, all the new channel does is to automate the copying of games from the SD card to internal memory before play. It shouldn't create any new security holes since you could already do that manually.

As to the OP question, I believe it can significantly increase sales. It makes it much easier to download games, and when people can do something easier it's quite likely they'll do it more often.

I expect a small boost. Nothing earth shattering. The people who are out of space are the biggest downloaders so they ought to be more interested in buying now.

for me personally, it won't really make me download more games than i would have otherwise. i've downloaded 25 games (17vc and 8 wiiware) and the storage problem didn't hurt me enough to stop buying them.

EDIT: and TWRoO, for FINALLY getting the wonderfully delicious world of goo, you just jumped several rungs up my ladder of awesomeness :D