You're telling the guy who pays for development to keep paying. Everything was well so long as Automattic paid and you went along for free, right?
You can tell him he's a dick for messing with the status quo and most people will agree with you, but the guy who did the paying won't agree. And when you think about it you wouldn't have agreed with it if you were the payer, would you?
You're telling him "man up and keep paying". Maybe you wouldn't put it like that? Would you say "you earn [number goes here] so you can pay a hundred FTEs to work on open source when your biggest competitor pays for one" or something?
Man up and take your medicine.
'Don't be a dick'. Here endeth today's lesson.
Also, long live the fork(s). Don't be beholden to one plugin supplier, no matter how benevolent they seem when you start using their wares.
Behold the field where I grow my 'fucks'; 'tis barren, sire.