They ditched the XServe because people just weren't buying them in any noticeable quantities. Apple sells a lot more Macs now then back when Macs were pretty all Apple made, so why would they decide to leave all that money on the table?
I wonder how much the person the author was talking to was really dreaming about being an animator, and how much he was actually dreaming about not having the responsibilities that were "preventing" him from being an animator.