This article somehow ignores the interesting question of why these "experienced Burners", some who have been going for five to 20 years, not only decided to not go this year, but decided to do so after spending hundreds of dollars on non-refundable tickets. They did so with the full knowledge of last year's mud problems.
I'm certain that most of them were always going to sell their "extra" or "friend's" ticket online for profit, just not willing to admit it online.
Probably a good number are scalpers, but also some really disorganized people too. You can get stuck with extra theme camp tickets if you're not careful.
If you're part of a theme camp you normally buy as many tickets as youre allotted during the theme camp sale. This sale happens before the public one and the reason you buy as many as you can is because for the last 10 years getting a ticket in the public sale is a lottery. After the public sale you normally redistribute your extra tickets to people who want to camp with you.
The public sale this year was probably pretty easy to get tickets, so people might be stuck with theme camp tickets. Also, BM delayed mailing physical tickets this year to try and boost sales during their final OMG sale. BM did their best to try and screw people too.
I'm certain that most of them were always going to sell their "extra" or "friend's" ticket online for profit, just not willing to admit it online.