HTH, you DO know what you're talking about.
What you say makes sense. But the Euros do have some things to be "frightened" of.
Google has always nailed the "user friendly" aspect and has a worldwide name that people will go to as a default. (Warning, the following is a horribly general example.) "I need info on France, I'll just put "French History" in a Google search. Oh look, here's a link to a book on French History!" What if the books that Google tends to link to were all Ameri-centric, written by American authors? Many users simply aren't power searchers, and don't check the sources of the info they get.
Yes, eventually everything will be online, but will it be easy to find?
By making a big deal out of this, perhaps the Euro site will build a world-famous name of its own, and people will flock there for information as well. They will also attract quality web-development talent to make it user friendly.