I don't really care if its a console port, but trying to argue that it isn't is just insulting gamers intelligence.
I don't know how interested I am in the game. I haven't really played any BF games. I don't think my connection handles them well (I know BF2 didn't like it). Ignoring the game itself, I think this could be a really great business model for multiplayer games. You make a content-light version of your game and release it for cheap. If it doesn't get peoples attention then at least you haven't spent a lot on its creation. If it really catches on then you can make more maps or whatever.
$15 isn't bad to try it. Even if they release $5-10 map packs later you'd have to buy several to meet what a full retail game would cost you, and most likely you'd end up with more maps than the retail game would have come with normally.
The only problem would be player fragmentation, with some people only having the base game and maps, some with various numbers of map packs, etc. At least everyone would have the same "core maps" to play on.