Yes, for our benefit.
Chris isn't worthy of charity on his merits or his ability or even understand the basic reciprocity that defines human relationships. He doesn't DESERVE charity, but that's not really the question.
The question is, frankly, do people feel better for helping these people? I don't, so I said I would not and did not donate. Most of us knew Chris was probably going to be ungrateful people's help to start with, and a lot of us (myself included) resigned ourselves into believing that it would take a hard hit to break Chris out of a painful and empty routine. This is why trying to have Chris learn something, anything, from the January Fire took on this frankly quite interesting debate about the role of charity and whether to help a LolCow in legitimate hardship but still entirely unwilling to do anything for themselves.
People wanted to give in spite of it all. I'm not losing anything by allowing them to do as they desired with their resources. I disagreed with it, I think I explained my views on it cogently in the main thread, but the main difference is that emotions and not logic is winning the day.
I don't see this issue as particularly divisive nor do I think either side has any moral "advantage" to it. People who donated to Chris understood that he probably wouldn't appreciate it and shouldn't feel let down that he hasn't. For myself, I'm a bit flustered that Chris really doesn't seem to have changed even in spite of his hardship, and blamed someone else (Keurig) yet again.
I just think taking a hard stance against others on this is pretty ideological; I'd wanted Chris to change by having to take initiative and change himself; the donors probably wanted sincere gratitude and a real break into Chris' circle socially (and Chris really does need Non-Barb acquaintances). Either way, the odds were low to start with. This is not the first nor the last of the White Knighting attempts for CWC, and he can't even recognize that we're not necessarily against him.
But sniping at other people online, although perhaps fun when you've delivered a multi-megawatt Zap to the Extreme style burn, doesn't really advance collective knowledge or serve any kind of productive role. I'd just assume watch people discuss Chris and the harsh lessons of a Lolcow, not insult each other for complex philosophical reasons.