He's got to be aware of their business practices (content scraping/aggregation), whether you phrase them as SEO or not. This article is a long read, but it clearly points out the issue that many of those arguing against Google in one form are using Google (and search engines in general) to their advantage in others.
I think your completely right. I was once talking with an angel about one of the companies they had invested in and got the reply "I don't know what their doing I'm just an investor." Whether this is a good thing or not is up to discussion.
I don't see that as much of an excuse. Investing in a company isn't like paying taxes; you voluntarily decide who to invest in, and ethically (if not legally) you have some responsibility for their actions.
