Maybe Bairstow needs to have a li'l chat with Rolly Crump, one of Walt's Imagineers who is still with us. Rolly tells a story about a meeting he took part in where Walt and some of his staff were discussing the Country Bear Jamboree. One of the guys from merchandising kept pressing Walt to put a t-shirt store outside of the attraction. Walt said no. The merch guy kept pressing it ("T-shirts make a lot of money, Walt"). Finally Walt turned to him and said "Mr._, the tail does not wag the dog!"
In other words, Walt was focused on entertainment, not merchandising. Entertainment was the dog. Merchandising was the tail. Those were Walt's priorities. Walt cared about money, but he didn't care about it for himself. He saw money as a means to do things - like invent the theme park. It's important to remember that Disneyland was a terrible risk, but Walt built it anyway, because he believed in the idea, and the idea was not to make a pile of money. He wanted to build a place where entire families could have fun together. And that's of vital importance, because the real "magic" of Disney is Walt's ideals. That's the Disney difference. And people believe in that even now, and it's the best asset the company has, and that's why it's so upsetting to see those ideals sacrificed to improve the bottom line and please stockholders, to see a merchandise guy in charge of the parks. Walt would despise that, I have no doubt.
It's the most craven type of cynicism that believes that every positive thing we've heard about Walt is just company spin. It's also completely false. To believe that Walt was merely a savvy businessman is conjecture. That he was something more has been verified again and again by people who knew him. It's a pity he still needs defending, and worse that he needs defending from so-called fans on a Disney message board.