It's not really his responsibility to tell Echo Lake what to do or not do. He decided to work on this project, and they decided to stop producing boards. If they based that decision on a single person saying they were going to attempt to do something that hasn't even been completed yet, then that's not really his fault. If I said I was going to build a better, cheaper electric car than Tesla, and Tesla shut down production without me ever actually producing or selling a car, it would be a little strange, right?
Just my two cents, but there's effectively no competition for the previously made boards yet, so there was really no reason to stop producing/selling them. There has been a mention of an email from the Echo Lake, so perhaps I don't know the whole story, but unless Ilikewires had some sort of agreement with them or something, then he has no control over their decisions or what they do/don't produce.
It's great that Echo Lake has been producing these boards for everyone in need, and I applaud them for it. I encourage them to keep doing so, and if there comes a time where it's not cost effective because of competition from other sources, it makes sense to bow out. Until then though, I'm not sure why they would stop, and I certainly wouldn't blame Ilikewires for them doing so. He has repeatedly said this is a project, not a full-time priority. I don't expect him to contact Echo Lake and say "Hey, this is taking a while and I've hit some snags, you guys should make more boards." I understand that EL probably doesn't want to spend time/resources to make more boards and then get undercut at the last second potentially, but at this point given the demand and supply situation, I think it's safe to say that they could go ahead and make some if they wish, regardless of the progress of this project.
I hope both EL and ilikewires keep at it. Thumbs up to both for helping all of us out! It would be great for the hobby to have more MPUs out there, and a lot of games would have renewed life. Fingers crossed in the near future, a lot of Game Plan pins are being played again.