I think WotC has responded as they think best to a problem that they are within their rights to attempt to thwart (or at least slow, annoy or reduce the quality of).
I'm not convinced that people downloading the PDF's illegally are lost customers. I think customers prepared to pay, far prefer to have a shiny new book to open, leaf through and smell.
My interpretation is they have a problem. They are buying time to come up with a satisfactory solution. Stop the PDF's, we'll figure another digital solution to keep our fans happy.
As I look at the progress of 4e, I think Wizards has been listening to players complaints, at least to a certain degree without straying too far from the original vision. The Half Orc was scrapped, The Gnome given a hefty boot to the MM; they're back, because they're listening.
Complaints about the sameness of class creation, a weak and limited multi-class system. They respond with concepts like Dhampyr and the Hybrid Class system to spice character creation and flavour up. Work in progress that I'm sure is generated because they're listening, and trying to get people with complaints onto the same train.
I'm sure the logistics of it are not easy. I'm sure not every decision they make will be the best, or the right one. They still have to run a profitable business, and make good on their investment. We are still talking about people, and people inevitably make errors. What would be more worrying would be a complete lack of resolve to amend, correct, improve, solve and evolve. Personally I don't think this is the case. Hopefully I won't be proved wrong.
Whatever the case, I don't buy the idea that WotC is some cruel, heartless, soulless beast that doesn't give a d... about the product they're creating, or their loyal fan base, or anyone in the world. I doubt very much they're having the books made in some backwater alley in a sweat shop found in some war torn third world country and using their profits to invest in instruments of mass destruction. But some people make out as if they were monsters, or cold blooded murderers.
The boss has taken time to at least try and do some damage control by answering peoples questions. That doesn't mean he's in a position to be open, or speak in depth or at length about the decision. Keep in mind they are in a court case over this. And he may not even have those answers.
What we can hope is that he's being honest. That there is a will to find a suitable solution, and in time the problem will be resolved. Because obviously this will do little to stem the flood of pirated copies of books on-line.
I personally appreciate the gesture and prefer to think positively until proven otherwise. I have nothing to lose in doing so, and nothing to gain by doing the reverse.
