In particular, if most devices were flashable, then the world need not be so upset in innovating with the format because it has to worry about the large base of players who won't understand the format. And in fact, as people became more and more aware that flashable players did not go obsolete as fast as fixed ones, they would demand them in the market.

(They could also have fixed security holes in their DRM, perhaps, so this is not all an upside. :-)