That's just petty nitpicking, the h264 patent threat in much more immediate and substantial so an alternative is needed specially since we are at the beginning of this shift and setting open standards now will save a lot of heartache in the future.
Its not petty nitpicking, its their entire argument. Including H.264 doesn't in any way prevent WebM from becoming the more mainstream standard. Except for the fact that likely more people would choose to use H.264 over WebM so they don't have to re-encode their video catalog using inferior tools in an inferior codec. The "Video Startups" he's defending aren't being stifled under H.264's licensing fees. The fees exist but they're pretty much negligible to a video provider compared to any other cost they are incurring. If they are really concerned for the poor video startup give them options to use the best tools for their need.
