Imagine a world where some dude from LFL liscenscing had never posted on the "Star Wars.com" mesage board any mention of 'canon.'

No "C" "G" "D" levels. Nothing.

I can't guarantee that "Star Wars" would make just as much money without a canon system, but you know what makes a crapload of money with no canon system? The X-Men.

They have a move series, multiple cartoon series, mangas, novels, actionfigures, tabletop games, and even comicbooks, and no one is having apoleptic fits trying to make those all tie in together into a seemless chronology. They don't even try to keep it consistent between properties.

Even single properties, like the X-Men comics, in the run of one editor might have continuity issues, but no one goes on Marvel.com and says "Well, X-Men #234 page 8 has been lowered from D-Canon to V-Canon."

So, since I'm not convinced that a Star Wars canon policy is in place to somehow increase sales, it must be in place to please a certain sort of fan, the sort of fan who cares about official canon. Its ironic that these sorts of fans are the very ones who get their panties in a bunch about canon.