Well, it's kind of a scale, right? If you replace a 6" USB cord with a 1" one, you're not really hurting anyone. I already had a 6" Mini B cord sitting around (and I could've gotten one elsewhere if I needed) but potentially saving $X00,000 or more on production. If you only include a composite cable, that was a bit worse earlier on when your alternative was a $40+ component cable, but now that HDMI is standard everywhere it's not so bad.
The proprietary media is much worse than either because there's no alternative. It's just passing a huge, invented cost onto the end user to try to make up for thin margins elsewhere, and it puts a huge drag on the DD business for the system. That's why this particular angle (that, again, Microsoft was guilty of with their 360 HDs) is so bad.