He's not being held to a different standard. Microsoft doesn't get credit for every memo or power point presentation! Why should Zed get credit for every web site? It doesn't make sense. He wrote a cog.
Microsoft, on the other hand, gets paid for every memo and presentation, even though they just "wrote a cog". It's not unreasonable for Zed to desire something in return for writing a cog, even if he perhaps has not been using an optimal strategy for achieving it.
Microsoft gets paid because they're a business. It is unreasonable because Zed is not running a business. Running a business is hard -- a lot harder than just writing software and releasing it to the wind.
