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The issue is not purely about cost and conveiniance, it is also about quality. Often the DvDs which are for sale do not have things translated very well, and are often missing those little cultural notations which several subgroups tend to include. Sure, there are still a few sub groups who get things wrong throughout the series, but getting things wrong, and never fixing them seems to be more common among companies which release for sales. Now one can argue if such features add or take away from the anime, but over the course of time, the value of good translation and cultural notations allows for a greater understanding and enjoyment of the media.
Rather than look at it from some sort of business prespective, it should be viewed as a form of art. Subbers try to make (or atleast should) sure that what is wanted is conveyed properly for maximum enjoyment. Whereas companies are more concerned about just producing something which can be fed to enough people to make them money.
That said, companies have made some big mistakes in the west, which have cost them markets. If they hadn't focused primarily on childrens shows until 2000 or so, things would probably be different. It's that reafirmation that "animation is for kids" thing that prevented adult and teen markets from being exploited. This is an issue since their only real market at this point is the same people who are also downloading anime, rather than someone who just walks in the store looking to buy a good series (the same way people seem to buy movies or books).
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