His move to remove the R rating is a shrewd business move that corrects for what in hindsight was a poor business move (so much violence that it carried an R rating at the theaters), and makes the film more accessible. He initially underestimated how many people would get scared away by the R rating AND the MSM's hypoctritical criticism of the violence (while the "Kill Bills" get a pass-zheesh). If he had somehow made it PG-13 from the start he might have had the #1 box office move of all time.
Why shouldn't he be congratulated for a midcourse correction?
I should also add that I trust Gibson to do something productive and meaningful with the money instead of, say, sending it up his nose, or wasting it on ostentatious living.
Kill Bill did get an R, and every review I saw did mention the violence. Not that anyone should have been surprised by violence in a Gibson or Tarantino film. The fact that The Passion was such a lightning rod to begin with had a lot to do with this. Not to mention Kill Bill's violence became over the top in a hurry.
That's debatable, since the movie grossed $600k+ worldwide. Considering also that the dialog was in Hebrew, Latin and Aramaic, one can safely conclude that Mel was not motivated by financial considerations. One can also argue, as I do, that Mel's editing of the original is motivated primarily by a desire to make "The Passion" accessible to a larger audience.