I've no problem with this. I go to WordCamps still, and probably won't go (but that being said, I wouldn't go to WordCamps in the US as it's just so far away, so my opinion shouldn't count), but I must admit that price point !== quality. I've been at conferences where one of the take away points was "If you don't know, ask somebody". Seriously, that was from a $600 conference. Furthermore, by attracting the name speakers doesn't necessarily mean they are great. Often, speakers from larger companies don't actually share too much knowledge because they're too busy towing the company line. Instead they share what they're latest products do.

From hearing a few of the speakers from Loopconf speak already (many at WordCamp Europe), I'm confident that these won't fall into the same boat, and if it attracts better developers to the WordPress Community, then I'm all for it. Furthermore, if it comes out that Loopconf was awesome and a mustn't miss, then that is a good thing.