Sure, that's a service (convenience) that some people may find useful. On the other hand, other people may find paying twice for the same content just so it can be displayed on a single device undesirable. Shouldn't be a deal breaker either way.

Yes, if your friend wants a device primarily for "consuming" digital media there are many better alternatives out. So what, that's not what the tablets are for, even though they can do a lot of that quite nicely. In fact that's probably also true for any other type of single-purpose device (media player, GPS, ebook reader, games console etc).

Is it really the device manufacturer's job to provide DRM readers and media? I understand Ovi may be blurring the borders a bit, but it's really up to Amazon, Apple etc to provide software that can read their content. I wouldn't even mind if installers for said software came bundled with the official firmware, as long as one is not forced to use them (similar to, say, how skype comes bundled with the N8x0s even though they also come with a perfectly usable SIP client).

The main reason I wouldn't recommend a N8x0 is email support. Modest[1] is just too buggy, claws works but isn't really designed for a mobile device[2] and most non-geeks would laugh if I told them to use mutt or alpine in a terminal. Almost every other email-capable device out there at the moment does it better :-(

[1] The Diablo version. The in-development Fremantle version is beginning to look a lot better.
[2] Not talking about the UI, it doesn't even have support for IDLE[3], let alone proper LEMONADE.
[3] but then again neither does the last modest we're ever likely to see on an N8x0, at least until Mer becomes suitable for day-to-day use