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People who get ePubs from other sources are not necessarily "techies". They're people who shop from a variety of sources. It doesn't take technical know-how to download an e-book.
I am far from a techie, and I shop around for e-books ... because there's no reason why I should have to restrict myself to one company's pricing and selection. In fairness, Kobo has been pretty good ... so far ... but there's no reason why I should make one company my soul source for books.
One of the selling points of the unit -- and Kobo actively used it as a selling point -- is that it is supposed to support a variety of formats, and other ePub sources. That, aside from the price point, is what is supposed to separate it from Kindle.
If you can only effectively use ePubs from Kobo, that's a black mark on the unit, and a reasonable concern for anyone looking to buy a reader.
Would it be okay for a laptop to only be able to order physical books from Indigo, because of some bug that wouldn't allow you to order books from another source? Because we're essentially talking about the same thing.
The last thing I'd want would be for Kobo to gain the sort of monopoly in e-books that Indigo enjoys in books. Indigo's business practices often border on thuggery. And if I were to recommend the Kobo reader, without significant improvements to the way they handle non-Kobo ePubs, I'd essentially be supporting such a monopoly.
As it is, price is the only thing that Kobo has going for it, and with the low-end Sony reader going for only $50 more, I'm telling people that if they're okay with the smaller screen size, they should get the Sony reader. Sony readers are clearly a superior product -- I don't think anyone would deny that.
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