..but they won't fold on the issue so it'll simply create bad press..nothing more.
As I said with both their pieces of hardware about to face the cat and mouse game of modchips/piracy..
...Nintendo are not about to do something that'll make them even more vulnerable...if anything they'll be tightening security.
Region locking and Piracy Prevention are 2 different things. You can still have anti-piracy measures without region locks. (Vita is one example)
And I know many people who modded their hardware with the main intent to get around region locks and then succumbed to the lure of "free games"
And if this upcoming WiiU and 3DS piracy is as inevitable as you say, then it makes sense for Nintendo to at least get a bit of goodwill out of it. There are a lot of people would legally import a game they wanted to play from another country. A lot fewer would buy a second console to play it. One of these modchips will seem the cheaper option.
I bought 2 Wiis last generation (I live in Japan) and vowed that I wouldn't do it again, especially at how much the WiiU costs. If the WiiU was region free I would have bought several Japanese games already knowing that I can still get US games when I visit the US. As it stands I am waiting.
I have a Japanese 3DS and I barely use it. My Kanji skills are not enough to make me want to invest a lot of time, dictionary in hand, for a text-heavy RPGs. At the same time, I don't want to pay high import fees to get the English version of Mario Kart when I could easily enjoy the local one.
In the end I'll probably cave and buy a second 3DS... and Nintendo knows it. So yeah, this might be a lost cause, but it shouldn't be "piracy prevention" keeping it from happening.