Jeeze, not everyone on HN has the same viewpoint!
These categories of schools just have different funding mechanisms and thus different incentive structures. Compared to private nonprofits, for-profits can crowdfund creation of the school, but give up some ownership. On the other hand, public nonprofits are controlled by politicians and the general public.
> why did [many people] think that one for-profit is bad, and the other gets a free pass
I suppose for most people it was a value judgement, rather than an ideological one. The same reason why someone might dislike McDonald’s, but still like Veganburg. Bang-per-buck, many Coursera classes are a better value than those at other schools, whether they are for-profit, private nonprofit, or public.