Many, many VCR's have never even had a blank tape in them or had their recording function activated. They know that with their VHS they always have that option to record open to them should they choose to do so. The fact that they don't has no bearing on anything. Consumers will look at DVD and see that it doesn't record. That will instantly arouse suspicions in their mind that if the movies they want to watch are not available on the DVD discs, then the machine will be useless to them and a waste of money.
Programming is another area as mentioned above.
All the companies involved with DVD are promising a catalog of 250 titles at the launch with maybe 50 to 100 actually available in the stores in the beginning. This means that unless the powers that be have been secretly encoding discs for the last 3 years in preparation for the launch, there is no way they have the time to ready 250 titles by June. Their only choice is to compromise the quality of the encoding by using quicker algorithms that save time while sacrificing picture quality. They will be the same tired movies that everyone already owns and will be loathe to buy again. Also, DVD movies are supposed to have features such as multiple aspect ratios, and different languages and ratings and subtitles.