The harm is in how VMWare's customers are being denied the very generous conditions Christoph extended to VMWare and everyone else who benefits from using that

The harm is in how VMWare's customers are being denied the very generous conditions Christoph extended to VMWare and everyone else who benefits from using that code. He didn't write it for VMWare, he wrote it for everyone. There is nothing wrong with using GPL code in commercial products, but why should VMWare be allowed special privileges to it? Everyone should be able to use the code for their own purposes, whether commercial or not, on the same generous terms.