WP Engine does not contribute enough to the open source code they're making hundreds of millions of dollars a year on, and it's time for open source to fight back. He should've talked to a lawyer before making statements that WPEngine may call “slanderous”, but the fact he even offered a 300k USD severance package to any employee wanting to leave WordPress.com, because things could get more stressful in the coming time, is wild. What boss does that? It's very nice and thoughtful for the people who work under him.
I can't really hate the guy for speaking what we're all thinking.