Don't paint Sony & Co as being any nicer than Toshiba. They were just as greedy and actually a little more underhanded, which helped their win. BR has it's points but HD DVD had it's. Yes, Toshiba did a lot to throw things in their favor at the DVD Forum but the other members of the forum let them - including Sony and other BR companies (as generally the BR companies were also DVD Forum members due to producing DVD hardware/software too). Mainly what separated the BR companies from the HD DVD companies at the outset, was that they wanted their slice of the pie (each generally only getting a small specific piece of the action), and they wanted to lock in the prices higher for longer than Toshiba would have, in order to maximize each slice. BR group wanted big margins up front on hardware (which would guarantee slow sales after the early adopters were covered) and for as long as possible (initially locking out the low cost Chinese firms) to get their individual slices to be highly profitable. The software margins weren't as good but the prices still high due to initial production issues. Toshiba would have had such a large slice of the HD DVD pie, that they wanted to go for overall volume as fast as possible (less per unit but more units), and rake in their profits from a wide range of patents (i.e., players and discs). The HD DVD discs were just barely more expensive than DVD to produce, so software prices were mostly profit. The more discs they sell, the more money they make. Most of the BR guys other than Sony (who did most of the initial disc manufacturing) were going to only see profits from the hardware sales themselves.
Also, as far as Toshiba forcing anything... technically, for most of the format war, the BR companies could have outvoted the HD DVD companies, they outnumbered them on the DVD Forum. But they didn't, they just kept not voting on things, being all passive aggressive like a teenager. That's when Toshiba changed the bylaws such that only yes and no votes were the only ones counted, previously yes votes had to outweigh no votes and non votes. BR companies kept going the non vote route, as before, but Toshiba could finally move ahead.
Sony and Panasonic had a patent empire previously with CD, lost the SD video round to Toshiba for DVD (honestly their multimedia CD standards were junk compared to DVD, essentially glorified SVCDs), and have now gotten the next round with BR. BR actually is built like an upside down CD. CD had the data close to the top, which meant it was well protected when set down (but easy to damage from the top), BR is the opposite (in order to get the data closer to the lens and improve data density) whereas DVD and HD DVD are both in the middle (well protected on both top and bottom, but not as high a density, density increase only from laser wavelength and not laser wavelength + closer to lens). This would also explain why BR discs require special coatings on them to protect the data layer from damage, since at the density the data is on the disc, even the slightest scratch can be unrecoverable. So both groups have modified existing techniques and mixed them with new technology. One trades capacity for reliability and cost of production (HD DVD), while the other trades reliability and cost of production for storage (BR). Most other features are comparable, at least if you compare the newer BR Profile 2.0 players vs HD DVD (and not the older 1.0/1.1 players, though I'll grant you most people have no use for the extra features ... )
Mostly the production issues have been reduced (although I'm sure they still cost more to make than ye olde DVDs still, should become more fine tuned and cheaper over time as with anything else). And pretty much all current players are 2.0, and most of the 1.0/1.1 will be early adopters who (hopefully) knew what they were getting into. So now we're down to BR has a higher bitrate ceiling and more space, which are definitely points over HD DVD, even if most of the time you don't really need either, they don't hurt to have. I'll admit those are advantages, and tip the scales in BR's favor, evil Sony empire and all.
Disclaimer: I was a HD DVD supporter. Got a ton of discs and a few players (mostly cheap used spares off eBay after people tried to cash out post-war), and I'm not ditching them. I still have LaserDiscs and players, after all. Mainly I liked my stuff to be cheaper, and I don't trust Sony to do anything in the consumer's interest. I know Toshiba is just as motivated by corporate greed, but at least they haven't screwed over people as much in the past (even if only because they hadn't had the opportunity) ... also I liked the idea of having all players capable of all features. I've been waiting for the right BD player, which is out but I haven't yet purchased (other things to spend money on these days), I'm not going to refuse myself entertainment, it's not like I'd make a dent in anything by doing so.
