hey noobwarrior besides cost effective of soft mod heres a few points....
6x read speed - 3x softmod but cache can run like 6x -common misunderstanding, fueled by people who think games really only "load" during "loading screens"
-gamecube support - this is being worked on over in another forum and possible I know, we're talking present time
-easy-update (no "uninstalling" anything) - soft mod easy updating no burning required
-helpful in almost all unbricking situations - bootmii with gamepad accessable i believe you haven't read enough, but you have a basic understanding
-true disc channel loading - again foresakhn has cracked this with cSM by "True" I mean, at-boot AND with real disc loading too, I'll wait and see
-higher compatibility - i'll give you this point good, although this is one of the weakest, since the goal of the launchers is this
-RW comapitbility - not really issue most dvd -/+ anyway and -r cheaper right, really only useful for testing out games, but custom GH3 designer probably find htis useful
-+R no booktyping needed - (sorry dont understand booktype ive no problem) yes, its no big issue
-autobooting possible - Foresakhn remedied this I think you're mistaken about what I'm talking about, boot before sysmenu
-completely stealth (not really that important, but still nice) - can use online I know, it isnt important
-cross-region usually holds no real limitations (especially with GeckoOS) - no region locking on 0.3 but still a lot of region compat issues
-better DL support - no one would download 9GB and discs are to expensive personal preference, all viewpoints valid
so all in all its better to soft mod in my oppinion...oh and the law states you cant mod you console with 3rd party device (i.e chips) to get around copyright on games...as said just my opinion.
most important for you to understand: you CAN NOT LEGALLY use something to play BACKUPS (at least in the US)
it is legal to:
-have something that boots backups
-make/have backups
it is not legal to:
-sell backups or something to play them with
-use something that will play them to ACTUALLY play them
this includes the launchers