The typical hobbyist modder doesn't comprehend that with business transactions come business obligations. People are going to be blinded by the profit potential only to get in over their heads when their customers start demanding to be treated as such, not to mention all the legal complications that come with being a business (also not to mention taxes). The end result will be modders burning out sooner than later, leading to a community that focuses on simple quickie mods that don't need any long-term support. Free mods will still exist for the time being, but that community can only shrink as new talent decides to go the paid route instead. So basically, it's the horse armor fiasco all over again, only it's partially modder instigated this time.
What Valve should be ashamed of is that they apparently led modders into this mess without preparing them for a business environment. Chesko should've known that Valve would refuse to pull an already distributed product as that's the correct financial decision, but that he thinks it's a matter of creative control tells me that either he didn't read all the documents presented to him (possible), or that Valve didn't care to sufficiently invest in their newly exploitable assets (which is what these modders really are in the new scheme of things).
Also, this post is content that cost me a precious few minutes to create. By reading this you are contractually obligated to compensate me for my time. The fair trade value for this post is pi^e cookies. If you fail to pay within 24 hours, I'll sue your beard off. Or something. (Obvious snark is hopefully obvious.)