I don't consider it unfortunate. It's the marketplace in action. The owner of the site is, (as you probably know since you allude to his frequent complaints on his website about not having any money), an unpleasant person who has attacked many people over the years, including a lot of former supporters of his site.

A lot of people don't want to give guys like him money, especially when most of the website's value was created by the thousands of bike tourists who put their journals there, not the creator of the website itself.

If he can't make a living from his website, he should get a job like the rest of us.