I feel that e-sports should appear because the gaming community makes it appear and not because some huge publishers want it to appear so they can get more cash and push their PR agenda.
This always feels way more forced and heavy-handed.
I agree with you, for the most part. I believe the effect should be natural. It should exist far before a developer, publisher or investor comes in. Some of the best competitive communities (known and unknown) have thrived because of steadfast people leading the way in their community.
However, I like where SCEE (or whomever) is going with this. There his a healthy amount of competitive players from Portugal/Spain (Uncharted, Killzone, FIFA, BF, COD) and they definitely deserve their chance to act as the catalyst for the rest of us.