They can release a cheaper overseas version on DVD because the DVDs will be region 3 locked (almost all DVDs in Japan are region 2). With Blu-ray, Japan and Hong Kong are in the same region and that's why there won't be a Blu-ray release outside of Japan. People in Japan could import the cheaper HK version for 1/3 of the price and not need to worry about region coding. It's the same reason I don't see overseas versions of her concerts coming out on Blu-ray, at least not for a while.
As for illegal downloading, it isn't okay to steal something because you can't afford it. People will do it anyway because they can and they won't get caught, but that's the bottom line.
Personally, I saved my money, foregoing a lot of Black Friday deals and Christmas shopping and even selling off a few items so I could afford it (my copy is with the DHL courier now). Someone said they couldn't buy it because they wanted to preorder a Final Fantasy game; if I told you I had downloaded that game for free you might see where I'm coming from.
At any rate, I'm not sure I would have purchased this on Blu-ray had I known most of the videos were going to be upscaled, and a much cheaper overseas version was going to be released on DVD (I have a region free player that does a nice job of upscaling SD material). I'm also not impressed by what I've seen of the packaging or the bag. By the time the early reviews were in, my copy from Amazon was already "Shipping Soon". At this point I'm just hoping I won't be too disappointed.
By the way, I just found this forum when I was searching for some reviews of the box set, so hello.
