Look at the Xbox
I have my Xbox chipped, and I dont play games on it at all (I have a top of the range PC for that), however I do run Xbox media center which is possibly one of the best media center applications ever. Infact every single person that I know and work with that has an xbox has it chipped for the seam reaons.
There currently is no XBMC for the 360 but when one comes out I will get a 360 and get it chiped for this reason (and yes I want XBMC for the 360 because the 360 media center is rubbish). I buy any games I play Im not ripping anyone off but I will damned well use the hardware any way I want to, even if that mean's letting it gather dust, throwing it out a window, or opening it up and soldering stuff to it.
Sure the chip's allow the ability to play copied games, but they also allow the ability to run homebrew software that is very much in demand yet microsoft refuse to allow to be offically liscened.