Ultimately, I think the loss is that a lot of people who were considering buying PS3's in the future now won't, and both existing and new users will think twice

Ultimately, I think the loss is that a lot of people who were considering buying PS3's in the future now won't, and both existing and new users will think twice about buying Sony products in future. Compared to the financial havoc that kind of reputational damage could reap, the cost of allowing Linux is pretty small.