Should the Xbox 360 have a HDD? Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

This morning I read a bit on Kotaku where Sierra was making the assertion that the Xbox 360 should have had a HDD in all systems much like the PS3. Ashcraft's affect in the piece was a "duh" and really I don't think anyone who has an Xbox 360 thinks otherwise, even if they have a core or arcade system.

Where Microsoft failed in regards to the 360's HDD requirements is in underestimating the power to convince system owners to buy into the HDD. Numerous opportunities have passed MS by where it could have moved to a HDD required future.

I appreciate the idea of choice, and even can understand the value of no HDD to the consumer, but after the core no system should have been marketed without a HDD. This Christmas, according to Microsoft, they sold all of the Xboxes they put out on the market, leading to shortages in the quarter following the 2007 holiday season. While this included what I believe to be the inappropriate Arcade pack, it also included the more expensive Elite systems. Microsoft could have sold just as many systems if the Arcade pack was not part of the SKU scheme. More users could have been led down the HDD path if they had no choice.

Another way that MS could have convinced the install base to move toward HDD system SKUs would have been to allow developers to create content that required the use of the drive. If Halo3 had required the use of the HDD to play the game, you would have seen those gamers who had a Core SKU buying more HDDs (which I think you could assert would have made yet more money for Microsoft). I'm not sure it would have discouraged any Halo fan who also had a core.

As someone who bought a launch day 360, which has since RROD, I know for a fact that the systems sold that night sold in the very black and white Premiums first, Cores second. I think that if only "premium" systems had been available at launch, they would have sold through, and no one would have complained that they paid more. The conspiracy theory in the back of my mind says that there was a HDD shortage, and no reason existed that the Core was for consumer choice. The Xbox Prime had a required HDD in all systems, and in no way did anyone complain that it could have been cheaper because of it.

So, as a gamer who enjoys the 360 I wonder why Sony made the decision to go ahead with a mandatory HDD in all PS3s and allows the developers to use it in programming their titles? And I also wonder why no third party solution to the 360 HDD issue has been presented. Security my eye.