... and hundreds of thousands of people losing everything they had in Mt. Gox (at best) and straight into Karpeles' pocket (at worst).

Are you sure we owe him?

I lost some money there too, I've been their customer since 2011.

But if the main reason for the April and November bubbles is Willy, than the current (amazing) state of bitcoin is thanks to him.

These kinds of market manipulation shenanigans only reduces trust in bitcoin, so no, we don't owe that fuckwad anything.

I did gain (ever so slightly) from the higher price, and I didn't have any money with MtGox so no loss there. But I'm still unhappy about it, because I want to see bitcoin succeed in the long term.

Unfortunately every market is highly manipulated... And in any market you deal with people who have more information than you. The game is trying to understand the manipulation.