The DVD read speads of it are the same as the standard DVD read speeds for the normal DVD reader/writer. You won't notice any performance increase from a standard DVD drive.
I've never owned a Lite-on drive, but from what I hear they're decent. As for wasting your time with blu-ray, it depends what you want to use the blu-ray drive for. As Nanobyte pointed out, it's good if you're using a HD camcorder and want to create blu-ray home movies, or if you want to watch blu-ray movies on your computer. As for a storage media device, I would say no. There are better (and cheaper) options for storage around. A HDD you'd be paying around about 5c-8c per GB, DVDs around about 6c per GB, and blu-ray you'd be paying at least 16c per GB.
Don't get caught up in the hype of "It's new and better". If you think you will use a blu-ray burner, go for it. It looks like a quality blu-ray burner combo you have picked out (I'm no expert though, so anyone; feel free to correct me), for a decent price. If you think you'll be watching blu-ray movies, but not using the burner, you can save yourself $80 and go for a blu-ray reader combo. If you have a blu-ray player hooked up to your TV and don't even need it for your computer, save yourself a further $20-$30 and go the standard DVD burner drive.
I was looking into purchasing a blu-ray burner for my computer not too long ago but realised that I wouldn't actually use it, and would just be paying a lot of money for the 'it's new and awesome' factor.
Nanobyte: I've never had a problem with scratching the surface of my HDD
No storage solution is perfect, it's just about choosing which is best for your needs.