Eddie learned of this coin from an eBay listing and that is his only relation to them.
It's doesn't really add up
There is no point trying to second guess his motivation; after all we don't know him personally. It will be immaterial anyways if he ditches Zenithcoin for another. Even if he releases a 100% premined private coin, I will personally put up my miner to keep the network running. As I said, you can create a scrypt for for 0.3-0.4 BTC. You can even name this Zenithcoin if you want - nothing prevents it. Just don't make it THAT zenithcoin (whose ticker, ZTC, is also Zetacoin's ticker). There are a ton of pandacoins lying around and even two mastercoins.
In short, create a new scryptcoin, name it zenithcoin if you want or just Zenith, award a 50% or more premine. In effect Eddie will have the same result without the bad press, and potentially awarding dubious devs like Solarcx/FrictionlessCoin (who will still have a stake from the remaining 50%).