It is unlikely many people will have the ability or patience to utilise any PS3 download content due to it's size - A PS3 Blu-Ray disc is 25GB per layer (so 50GB for dual-layer) and there are plans for an increase to 33.4GB per layer (66.8GB for dual-layer) so simply downloading the content would be a task and a half. Sure, people would just resort to torrents and waiting; but it is far easier to just buy the games.
As for chipping the PS3 - As there are no region locks for PS3 games, so there is not such an urgent demand for one. (I used to import a lot of JP games for my PS2, so it was necessary before.)