A country's, or a continent's, signifigance has nothing to do with it's size, though.
I mean, if we wanted to make the nations of Africa or Greenland feel better, does it follow that we could make them appear bigger on the map than they actually are? Just move the mercator around such that Africa is along the top or bottom edge of the map where things are larger?
I am absolutely not saying that people having a better understanding of Africa is bad. I just don't think that this is really how that happens.
I remember thinking that Russia seemed pretty big on the map, and yet still, I've never had to take Russian culture as a class in high school.
[edit] I'll add one thing, though. This decision has clearly pissed the US government off, which is based and incredibly funny. I'll support it to that end.