What money issue when the leakers were causing it in the first place
I don't see the dev claiming he wants to earn a million dollars or anything but just no leaks and let the game naturally develop as it deserves. He also set clear guidelines for how he wants to give his game away, including that the game will be free for public within 14 days or so
But bro kept leaking again and again and well.....this ain't no surprise
It's like setting up a stall on a street to sell special apples and you see a robber stealing away your apples which those who needed it that day could have bought. It's common sense that each leak takes away days worth of patrons depending on the number of days before the public release. So yeah, losing a bad apple in return for few good apples is worth it. The question of so-called "exposure" is out of the window because it will be free within couple days.
If anyone wanna debate regarding the financial aspect of this, please make sure you have a MBA from top 20 Bschools in the world cause I have one