You know the whole reason that these books were no longer available on this site was because companies such as WANI asked for them to be taken down? So they wouldn't be on fakku or other sites period without it being a legal issue. Not so much for the doujin since there are bigger copyrights for those, mainly original artist works owned by the companies.
Anyways, fakku/Jacob saw this as an opportunity to talk with WANI and collaborate on publishing the works officially in English. Yeah you can still get bootleg copies off of other sites/torrent the works that were taken down, but to legitimately sell works for people to buy and own is pretty big and nice if you ask me.
Also, the amount of books they have sold isn't just a few, they've sold quite a bit and if they market/advertise/promote this right then this could be a profitable market.
I've purchased some of the books already myself since $10 dollars isn't that expensive (bought the paperback as well since I love owning books physically) and I would say that the reworks are pretty legit. They are HD with much love and detail put into it, plus they are uncensored which is always a plus. Basically don't knock it till you actually see it.
With your argument saying that it's cruel/pointless to sell digital versions. One it is cheaper then the physical book. Two some people don't want to own a digital copy for whatever reason (live with people they don't wish to have see the copy or prefer digital through and through). Most books are digital anymore, I mean look at how many people use things like nook and kindle. It would be ridiculous not to do digital copies.
The last bit about the community is something a lot of people have been throwing out and about. Here is the thing about communities, organizations, groups, and society in general; things change. With change comes difference of options so even though you dislike this direction not everyone agree's with you. Me personally I just go with the flow and if fakku wants to become a business, by all means do so. If they charge for people to come onto the site or to read hentai, I'll gauge how I feel about it then and if I don't see it benefiting me I'll go somewhere else (they'll probably just charge for premium membership where you'll get something like a magazine each month, the rest of the site will be free as always).
Other then that I'll leave this here by the big man himself since it was a pretty nice speech:
Jacob wrote...
I envision a world where all of the hentai produced is available in English the same day it is released in Japan. I want it to be made available uncensored and DRM free. I want to see the artists engage with their fans outside of Japan and embrace their international audience. I want to subscribe to my favorite magazines and read all of the chapters inside them every month (even the unpopular artists). I don't want to wait months for a group to pick up the chapter I was looking forward to. I don't want to wait for a book to be scanned or see some awful translator butcher the work of one of my favorite artists.
With FAKKU we have the opportunity to make that happen. It will take a while to figure out how to do it correctly and how to convince people who have been pirating this content for so many years that it's worth paying for. But I believe we can do it. That is my goal with FAKKU and I will do everything I can to achieve it.