Because those who criticize them for it make it sound as if it was a) an illegal, shady action, b) something outrageous that no company has ever done before, and c) something LJ (sorry, those evil Russians) did because they're filthy bastards who get off on being asses to their employees. Now, a) and b) are not true, and while I can't speak for LJ, judging from the general economic climate it's more than possible that they simply couldn't afford to pay severances to who the knows how many people they laid off. Sure, it's a shitty situation for the former employees to be in, and if it turns out that LJ could've paid but didn't, I'll be the first who calls them dirty bastards. But how about not calling them Satan Incarnate until we know something concrete about the situation? Stuff like this happens every day (at least where I live), it's sad but it's how the world works.