One of the main reasons that Minecraft has been so successful is because of the ability to be creative and really make the game your own.
Many extremely successful games were like this. SC1, Tribes, Unreal Tournament come to mind. Players create their own maps, worlds, mods and then they have a riot. While they do that they tell their buddy, which tells their buddy and more people buy the game.
Why in the world would Notch need to squeeze more money off the game is beyond me unless the money is going to his head, which does happen.
Bottom line is history serves us well by showing constantly that devs that destroy the community's ability to create, destroy the community's love for the game along with that lucrative word-of-mouth advertising that brings in the bacon!
I'm glad Notch came to his senses, but the fact that he is thinking like this is a truly disturbing development.