I prefer to spend my hobby dollars at a smaller company run by people that enjoy the game as well as want to make a profit off it like Paizo. Hasbro could care less about D&D or the RPG industry unless they are meeting their profit margins and making as much money as possible regardless of quality or creativity.
When a company lacks passionate leadership when it comes to their product, I don't want to support that company unless it's something like toilet paper that I need and does't really require a great deal of creativity. When it comes to my RPG games, I want a company that cares.
Sure, the corporation as a structure has serious issues, and size can result in greater issues. At the very core, the problem is not being content with a certain level. If you can set a goal of "everyone earns x, we have y employees, and we do this every year," then things would be simple and stable. When you want more each year, it gets tough.
But, that is what likely every RPG company wants. From Paizo to AEG to Hero Games (
laid off 2/3 of employees, down to 1), companies want to succeed and to grow and to increasingly reward themselves for hard work. Think Erik Mona doesn't want to increasingly provide for family, retirement, etc.?
And keep in mind we are talking about the game industry. It isn't like someone in the upper echelon of an RPG company left investment banking to take a sweet job leading design teams. Nope, these awesome people have been freelancers or up-and-coming employees and that means they could probably really use the company pulling in more revenue so it can provide better health programs and more take-home pay. Just about every person at every RPG is working a job out of passion.
And that includes WotC. You may think they saved D&D (well, they did, actually, back when TSR was collapsing) or you may think they are destroying D&D, but the WotC employees are awesome passionate people (just like at Paizo). These people love gaming, work overtime to bring us the best gaming possible, and deeply care about us (when we aren't flaming them on the internet). Whoever had to tell Rich Baker his job was gone had to have felt absolutely terrible. And yeah, it was probably him so it wasn't four other employees. We've seen Chris Sims and Monte Cook and Stan! recently come back, so hopefully those that have just left also continue to work as freelancers for WotC and can come back in the future as well.
Yes, Wizards is part of Hasbro. By all accounts they have tremendous freedom to operate. But, they do have to meet corporate budgetary goals, even if D&D is valuable just as a potential brand. This is actually good for RPGs, because Hasbro also provides big budgets. That massive art budget is part of what has helped other RPGs take art very seriously. The development of DDI, the ongoing work to figure out how to create in-store play programs, the work to figure out how to increase purchases by players... only Wizards with Hasbro can afford to experiment on that scale. The results benefit all RPGs. Just as Paizo makes Wizards stronger by being a good competitor, the reverse is also true.
Wizards is an excellent, fun, motivated, passionate company. It operates like a small company, but with budgetary benefits that help the entire industry (but which also come with some constraints). It isn't big brother. Ultimately, you should buy the product you like, regardless of company size. They are all small and all passionate. And, we can easily argue that it is very much worthwhile to support Wizards so the D&D brand remains strong. Their advertising alone brings tons of players to all aspects of our hobby. You don't think D&D Encounters brings every RPG in the store some players?
If for personal reasons you want to truly help those that need it, it isn't Paizo... look to small companies like Crafty Games (who left AEG to live the dream), or Posthuman Studios. Think of the really small indie games. Those are companies that can't even begin to dream of anything other than a fan-built character builder, who can't make an MMO or Video Game, and who are in real danger of finding they have to lay themselves off.