DVD regions... (and Blu-Ray as well)

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Remember way back in early 2000 (or was it late 1990's?) when DVD was started to be released? It was quite exciting to watch DVD's especially with the great quality of videos, the chapter selections, and that it's already compressed in 1 disc (FYI: Some countries like mine had VCDs or video CD's before DVD's came out. The movie was compressed into not less than 2 discs and the quality wasn't that great but acceptable at that time). What was quite different about it was the regions. What was the intention of having DVD regions? I understand that it was sort of a strategy against piracy (was it?) and the copyright thingys like "this is supposed to be shown/sold here or there only" and similar things. Do you think DVD regions are helpful? I'm from the Philippines and our region is 3. I am a fan of shows or movies from other parts of the world like Japan (Region 2), Hong Kong (Region 3), USA (Region 1), etc. It would be great if local companies would import the videos and create DVDs for our local code. I have this problem unless I buy the stuff online from Hong Kong which happens to have Hong Kong versions of most stuff. Fortunately, I also have a multi-region player and I'm so thankful to have it, really helpful. As for Blu-Ray, there are regional codes too...but I think it's well coded now in my opinion. There are only 3 regions (as opposed to DVD which has 6) and I'm glad that our country's the same region as USA, Japan and HK. Does anyone have the same problem because of your "international fandom"? Supposing you don't have a multi-region DVD player, it would be a bummer right?