In his biography he talks about the importance of Apple generating a profit in order to re-invest into producing new products. That healthy profits were not only necessary but desirable to that end. I believe he has also said as much in interviews in talking in general about the nature of business (I will try to dig those up). It's why he recognized that a company was the best vehicle to use to marry his love of the arts with technology, as he is quoted in his book.

It's perfectly logical, as it's not cheap to do what Apple does when it comes to creating. There's a reason they just hit $100 billion in cash - Jobs knew full well the value of profit and what it should properly be used for. They know the value and safety in being able to build what you want to, and not being constrained for oxygen due to low cash or debt or lack of profits.