Brussels isn't really much of a loss. Cities like Luik and Namen would be more of a loss, because they're some of the biggest industry cities in Belgium. Losing Hasselt would mean a gain, although it has alot of industry too. Stevaert's way of running it still makes the whole country lose money for privileges of one city, and the money lost by that's way too much to recuperate with what's gained there. This all's nothing 'bout territory or such. Heck, the most patriotic (and fachistic) political party wants to have Flanders lose alot more ground and become independant. (Btw: this doesn't mean I'm behind that party, just showing we don't care 'bout gaining ground elsewhere because we lose some on another spot)
What I did find a bit annoying, is that they said the language I speak is wrong, simply because it's not the same as they speak and it's categorised under the same language. The official language's built up from the dialect of Den Haag (or Utrecht, I keep messing that up) and as one dialect's different from the other and uses different words, it doesn't make it wrong, less or funny. It just makes it different from what you're used to. This means that Flemish sounding a bit different and using a few different words than our northern neighbours doesn't make us wrong and them right. It doesn't make us right and them wrong either. It just proves the official language hasn't taken over the use of dialects. Those that speak Dutch and not Flemish have the biggest example within themselves, namely Friesland. Nobody even understands those people, but they still speak Dutch (yeahyeah, they want Friesish to become an independant language, but then again, they're fiercely patriotic over their little piece of ground)
And btw: they started it, not me