Late reply, but my take is that he wasn't being hostile. He had a genuine question about why that should matter.

And I agree with him. Not everything needs to be sustainable. Not everything needs to be profitable over the long haul. Sometimes getting set up to take advantage of a one-time event (e.g., "Snowcopalypse" T-Shirts) with a short horizon is worth doing and worth studying for future opportunities.

My personal take on what he's saying is "adapt or die."