I don't find that contradictory. The guy put a bunch of musicians on stage, charged money to see them and made a bundle. (Although I don't know how much he actually netted after all the expenses were paid.) But that is what entreupenurship is all about. It's not the message, it's the bottom line.
But on the other stuff, I agree completely.
Irregardless [sic] of the massive gate crashing, approximately 60,000+ tickets per day were sold at $6.50 each, which over the course of 3 days would gross ~$1,300,000 ... overall expenses were ~$2.7 million for an initial net loss. However, the festival itself wasn't really intended to be a money maker .... the fortune was to be made by the movie and albums of the event, which it did, grossing approx $50 million by 1979!
Nice little ROI there, ehhh ?