It’s my opinion that if a developer creates a theme or plugin that is not licensed under the GPL like the platform it works on and is used by millions of people, that is a slap in the face to everyone who has contributed to the project

As much as GPL is about "freedom", it's also about copyrights. IANAL, but no matter how the WordPress system absorbs theme code at runtime, I don't see how that changes who owns the written code. If I write a theme, it is my original work. I own the copyright to that work, and so long as I have not used any original code that was written under a different license (legally speaking, calling functions would not count as using original code), then I should have the right to license and distribute my work however I wish.

That is not a slap in the face to anyone in the community, and to use one's position in the community to openly bash someone who dares to have a view that isn't in line with what they feel the community should be doing is low. Chris did himself no favors throughout this whole mess, and he knows that. Matt, to me, did worse by himself. His actions sent a chilling message to the community that if you don't tow the WordPress line, be prepared to get dragged through the mud.

naive userbase who doesn’t know jack about licenses
How much do you want to bet that most WordPress theme devs fit that description perfectly when this whole GPL thing got started?