I don't see what the problem is. Not only is it a pain in the ass dealing with the trouble people cause on these forums on an hourly basis (as I know from the time I spent as a mod), but add the cost of running the site to that pain and I'd be looking for any reasonable way for the site to pay its own bills.

The only caveat- it's great, as long as it doesn't influence the editorial position of the moderators. I've seen forums in which a guy will come in and post "X Shop screwed me out of $7000- I have pics and receipts to prove it. Stay Away!" And then the owner of the shop, who happens to sponsor the forum, comes in and posts "That's a lie, I never promised you that, etc" and the mods follow up with a lock, delete, and/or ban.

However, I trust the integrity of the people in charge here so I don't think that will be a problem. If they'd wanted to sell out you'd think they'd have found a more profitable way to do it in the last 7-going-on-8 years.