In principle there is nothing that prevents access to a downloadable game or free demo from a foreign store. They can be played on any PS3 with any account etc. That's very different to the IP block of VoD or Nintento's shops.
That's right.
Although creating a PSN account in a country, that you don't live in, is against Sony's ToS.
Which means Sony could theoretically just IP-lock everything and get away with it.
There should be only one PSN store, where you could buy everything from everywhere or at least they could just ask for the region, that you want to access w/o creating additional accounts all the time. I mean it should be: insert BluRay, buy DLC, works, done. Not: look up on the internet which DLCs from which PSN stores are compatible with the version of the game that you own, create PSN account, fiddle around with PSN cards or some crap, because they blocked creditcards.
In this case, PS3 really sucks. I buy a game in U.K. and I can't be sure, that I will be able to buy the DLC although I live in Europe, because Sony acts like "oh we will let you figure it out and if you are wrong, we will just keep your monies and you will have to buy it again from a different PSN store". The whole PS3 is full of this. 1080p? We will let you figure that out as well. Maybe the PS3 will output it in 1080p. Or it will deliver 720p and your TV should upscale it.
And buying PSN cards from eBay sucks. I don't want to risk being scammed.
I mean if you don't mind all the hassle and still consider it totally region free, one could also say that BluRays are not really region-locked either, because you could just buy a region A and a region B player. For example I own both a region A and region B player (by "accident", I just own an Asian PS3).
That's also why I think region-locking is totally stupid. If someone really WANTS to play a game from a different region, there is no way to really stop him. Worst case: IP-lock everything and require a constant internet connection. Workaround: VPN.
I don't even get it in the BluRay case. Where is the reason? As if someone from US would import a BluRay from Europe (and pay way more by doing so). For the latest release I would at least understand it a bit, but they are even region-locking 10 year old movies. Why? Those importers are a really minority and if they want to do so, noone can stop them anyway. It's just more expensive and that's it. Same in Nintendo's case.
For example I'm only importing BluRays/DVDs, if the European editions suck. Same for Nintendo. I imported a total of 2 games - No More Heroes (censorship sucks) and Manhunt 2 (Manhunt 2 sucks). For PS3, I imported Biohazard 5: Alternative Edition (because Capcom didn't make it totally clear, that Move would be supported by the other versions as well before releasing it, funnily I never bought Move, because the support isn't as good as RE4/Wii), a few downloadable games and that's it.