I would imagine not everyone has wireless. Plus those USB Ethernet adapters for the Wii are pretty expensive which is completely unnecessary.
I'm glad that the Wii supports WPA at least because there is no way I'd use WEP...which means I just have to use my neighbor's Linksys wireless connection for DS gaming since it doesn't support WPA.
I might be a jerk for saying this (or maybe it's because my Wii works fine) but I think that returning a modded console after it's been damaged is abusing the system. 15 year old kids shouldn't try to install a modchip if they have never touched a soldering iron before. All the time on forums when a new modchip or hack comes out I see distressed posts dealing with bad solder jobs or god knows what else.
In this case people people need to learn from past mistakes of Super Paper Mario in Europe, there is no excuse for something like that happening again. Console modding isn't like DS flashcarts, I think a lot of people don't know the damage they can cause. Plus, if they have the time and knowledge to obtain and burn Wii ISOs then they should at least check sites like this for some knowledge.
/rant offÂ