I agree it's purely a business decision, but I suspect it's a genuine attempt to redefine the magazine -- essentially as a head-on rival to Esquire (which is pretty much Playboy without the pictures). This allows Playboy to address a larger market -- i.e. people who would actually be interested in the articles but don't want to be seen as buying porn.

Of course, it's still called Playboy, so... eh whatever.