I used to run a tiny little site that made about $100 a month. Yet it got discussed on reddit and Facebook frequently because it related to a somewhat popular hobby. I found that such discussions brought me traffic and new users no matter whether they were negative or positive, because people saw the discussion, went to the site and made their own judgments.

I'm sure he gets the same thing. Talk == traffic. Or, if you prefer, the standard cliche is: "Any publicity is good publicity"