I don't know enough about Altman's previous business dealings to judge, but is this part of a pattern of behavior?
He's involved in the eye scanning shitcoin 'Worldcoin'.[0] Personally, I assume anyone involved in crypto has suspicious motives at best.
Here is the corrected version:
Someone realized the idealists around him truly believed that he was switching to a for profit model out of philanthropic intent.
That same person assumed, that the idealists would be dumb enough to let him quietly spin off a venture capital fund off the world's most hyped company.
They let him get away with it (my interpretation), by giving him full control and all the profits, out of lack of resources to figure out any other arrangement.
Well, Paul had to fire Sam from Y Combinator, so there's that.