When someone asked Nintendo why they even use region locking, they answered "To release the games on time in each country and so people don't have them early".
Why did they deliberately block Gamecube games from other countries, then? They've already been released and it would be nice if I could play Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Wii instead of wiring up the Gamecube again.
The European Wii can read American Gamecube games, someone found a 'glitch' to make it read them if you swap a normal/imported disk as it is starting (this was fixed...) and the Freeloaders do work without changing much. (Until they're fixed)