I heard someone mention that MGS4 was the first game to have uncompressed sound on a message board on Gamespot, I figured that meant that audio files had to be compressed to fit on a DVD so they couldn't reach their full potential?

I probably shouldn't have mentioned that lol.
I would say that online connectivity is pretty much a standard feature on game consoles now, I mean all three systems are essentially internet ready out of the box and there really aren't many games that don't have atleast some sort of online feature whether it be downloadable content or leaderboards. First of all Microsoft shouldn't charge you for Xbox Live, but you could tell they're really pushing XBL I mean the system comes with everything you need to go online except a subscription card, and don't they offer XBL Silver for free or something?
PSN is great by the way, and I think that Home is a step in the right direction they're giving you something to do besides just play your games online it makes it easier to make more friends to play games with. Plus being able to browse the web is a nice feature, even the Dreamcast let you do that so every next gen system should allow it.
Downloadable content would certainly cut production costs but Wings of Fire suggested it would put a lot of people out of work, and do you think that now after we're all used to paying $60 a game that developers will really want to lower the price of their software? Also there are plenty of people like Leto who want to have something tangible for their money.