I agree mostly with your post, but the *ahem* competitor could use it to lure in customers...
Well, I haven't followed that competitor out of my disinterest with proprietary software.
But I guess any sales lost to proprietary competitors are bad financially in the short run but good overall since it helps keep a more coherent community
that either works together with more common goals or at least has less diverse expectations.
The competitor won't help reach volume that makes things cheaper, but i may help avoiding frustrated users in the forums complaining of how come
(proprietary, x86, resource-hungry) game X does not work on the Pyra.This lack of frustration can help future sales. Or it can help diverting resources to satisfy diverse needs. Or at least it isn't so far fetched an hypothesis, I hope.
This can get too snobbish too easy, so don't get me wrong. I'd like a freedom preserving device like the Pyra or better to have milions of customers and
sale very cheap, but we live in the world we live, and many people pay in data, future options etc. instead of money, so carving a niche at a side of the market
is already good.
In this sense it is good to have a competition that is different enough. The volume you lose is the (relative) coherence you gain.