No console in history has ever "died" due to piracy, the level of know-how required and the hassle involved deters the majority of customers. In fact, piracy is in single-digit territory in terms of the customer base, and this includes consoles that could be modded with nothing more than an SD card like the Wii.
As for the chip device, good. People come for the piracy and stay for the homebrew at an astonishing rate, I personally only learned C because I bought a flashcart for my DS and everything was plug and play - if not for Team Acekard I wouldn't learn how to code until my university days. Knowing C gave me a huge advantage over other students, I even nailed the professor to the wall once when he suggested using a stupid loop.