"Chris Pearson's defense is thin at best: Switching to GPL wouldn't affect my business at all! It just rubs me the wrong way!"

It will ruin his business. Anyone that buys the thesis theme will be able to share it for free (and he will have no legal recourse).

"Additionally, he comes across as a real jerk."

so does Richard Stallman. I think he is sick of the GPL zealots hounding him. I would be too.

"Matt Mullenweg deserves an award for being so gracious and patient."

Matt Mullenweg wants all plugins and themes to be open sourced because he will be able to give them out for free with the WP platform (which will result in more users and more customers for the services that he charges for).