While I do not agree with the ethics of it, I don't understand how publishers can miss out on this point: if you don't provide something to consumers in a form that they want, they aren't going to buy it. In some cases, not buying it will translate into piracy. In other cases, not buying it will translate into not obtaining the book at all. Either way, they are losing out on revenues.

Even if the ebook release is delayed (which appears to be the case here) and nobody pirates it, they still run into a serious risk of losing sales because the book won't be fresh in people's minds and there will be a glut of used pbooks on the market.