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This topic is called either good or bad depending on one's placement in the manufacturer to consumer chain. Shimano is trying to produce a product with certain intangible qualities (along with all the cosmetic and mechanical features and functions). Two of these intangibles are customer service and perceived value.
Taking the US market as example- Why would a retailer or a supplier (and Shimano is a supplier here in the USA, no factory is in the US) want to loose money and service a product sold other through them? They (suppliers and shops) know that the warranty claim customer will just go back to the cheapest source the next time they need another Shimano part. Certainly the amount of references to over seas sources that we see posted here on Bike Forums speaks to this human behavior. But Shimano' manufacturing branch knows that their future value is somewhat dependent of the end user being able to get that warranty service. This is a part of the perceived value intangible. Shimano it trying to establish a level playing field for their US supplier branch, allowing the US sold bikes that use Shimano (the vastly larger part of Shimano's overall business, the after market is relatively small in comparison) to have quick and professional tech and warranty support.
When I read the claims as to how terrible the shutting down of grey market sources is I often wonder what business/work the writers do. I suspect that there's many examples of when these writers have said that protection for their products is good. Yet here they are bad mouthing this very thing when it costs them money.
Unrelated to what a product costs is the other shoe to drop. Where do you want your money to go? Are you good with sending it away from your community? (In this case your community is also your nation). Or do you like it when the guy/gal that sold you something can turn around and buy your product too. For all of Henry Ford's faults (politically really ugly ones too) he had the right idea about wanting his employees to be able to afford the cars Ford produced. Andy
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AndrewRStewart