Funny, I thought people would freak out more over a sequel to the game they love and can still get very easily versus a game that was never released in the US (hence the whole point of OP Rainfall). I can play EB right now on my PSP. What I can't get is a true translated version of M3 that I'd love to have, and would have an appropriate amount of freaking out over.
Yeah, if you went the route of the software pirate, you
could play Earthbound on devices you already own like the PSP or PC. Of course, you could
also just as easily play a pirated copy of Mother 3 on those same devices with the English language pack (as seen in the game's Retro Active). If you care about playing legal copies of your games, though, with near-perfect replication of the original experience, this is the first time you could do that with Earthbound since the late 90s.
I'm sure now that the floodgates are open that Mother 3 will be the next game people will cry out for (personally, I'm more interested in Terranigma and Lufia 2 getting VC releases), but for now Earthbound is the game that people care more about.