Imagine yourself back in 1994 when Sega Saturn was launched. I guess you didn't buy it because it is also able to read musics CDs? And you didn't buy a PS2 because it is able to read DVD? Or even a DVD player that reads MPEG video format/JPEG files? For all that you'd use the proper artifact to use those medias?
If I want my console to play DVDs. then I can pay a little extra to cover those fees that are attached to it. Otherwise, I don't need to. That is something I find a very good thing
Back in the day when the Sega Saturn / PS1 were released I never once used them to play music / photocd's or vcd because I knew they were crap.
First of all you had to find a away to put the media you had on pc and then onto a cdr so that the Sega Saturn / PS1 could read them.
Also the VCD attachments were expensive and the video quality was poor even when compared to VHS.
As for music cd's you gotta be joking, would you rather play cd quality music through your tv or through a Hi-fi the sound quality just doesn't compare unless you have the console connected to ur Hi-fi and even then the Hi-fi most likely already had a cd player.
As for DVD well I tried to use them a couple of times to play DVD's that I bought online a few anime movies here and there, however the experience was bad because I just had problems with the software DVD player that the PS2 had it would not play smoothly.
You could blame the media not being of good quality or whatever but my cheapass 20 quid dvd player in the living room and pc played these movies perfectly.
I tend to find most multimedia capabilities of consoles are quite gimmicky and I've never bought into them. Other than to test if everything works ok.
Sure its a big selling point for a lot of people but comon whats the big deal about Wii not having DVD anyway I got a main dvd player and I don't like playing DVD's on a console due to potential compatability issues because the xbox / ps2 dvd players are software and end up having problems playing some DVD's.
I have my PC hooked upto my HI-fi and tv so I play DVD movies using the computer.
Honestly I don't think its that much of an issue since even around my local area no one uses their consoles to play DVD because those that have , have told me about the problems they have had getting certain DVD's to work and ended up having to buy seperate dvd players anyway and these days they are so cheap why not ?