Sony drops European chip: Ok or not?

In the European release of the PS3, Sony decided to drop the chip that enable backward compatibility. All the backward compatibility is not completely gone, however. There just isn't as much as their North American counterparts. The chip removal, according to Sony, was done to help cut costs off the total system price. I see this in 2 ways. 1) I like the ability to cut costs because the system overall costs a lot in general and people may not have the total amount of money to pay for it immediately; therefore, if there is any way to cut costs I like it. 2) Limited backward compatibility is not good though. It's hard enough to find which games are backward compatible; now with the removal of the chip, it'll be more difficult. But again, if it means the overall price of the system is dropped, I'm for it. Something had to be sacrificed to let the price fall. I only hope this risky move doesn't come back to haunt Sony if the PS3 doesn't perform well overall.