By requiring ripple accounts to have at least 200 XRP for it to be functioning, OpenCoin Inc (who I feel is hardly open) is creating an artificial demand for the premined XRP (Ripples). This is akin to tax required in the nation's fiat currency to artificially create use cases for that currency.
Actual quote from Ripple employee:
we want to keep the servers under [..] more central control
Ripple is a trust based currency, and it will collapse. Your 5 "BTC" and 444 "USD" will vanish into thin air, and all you have left over will be the premined XRPs.