The refusal to sell the laptops to hobbyists (beyond the short-lived G1G1 program) and first-world school systems was apparently motivated by problems managing expectations for the low-power machines. G1G1 resulted in a large number of complaints and support requests from people who expected a commercial-grade "laptop", and the foundation was unwilling or unable to deal with them.
That said, I think ignoring the first world was an enormous misstep. Under-funded US schools would have benefited immensely from OLPCs, and a large domestic demand for the devices would have helped scale up production, reducing cost and increasing availability for poorer countries as well.
The 'Tesla model's as it were. Sell high end sports cars to enthusiasts first and use that to fund further development. Next a luxury sedan, where profit margins are higher, before moving down to the cutthroat economy market (a step that Telsa is still yet to fully realize since the promised cheap Tesla is still unavailable). It seems to have worked for Tesla.
That said, I think ignoring the first world was an enormous misstep. Under-funded US schools would have benefited immensely from OLPCs, and a large domestic demand for the devices would have helped scale up production, reducing cost and increasing availability for poorer countries as well.