I wonder how good his sales are, since he keeps stirring up the blog pot to get more readers. When I first heard about him, I was impressed with his story (if not his actual writing). The more I read of his rants, the less I care.
Self-publishing works for some people, if they can spend the time on promotions. Ol' Joe lucked out because he already had street cred from his work with Hyperion. I guarantee you, his results are not typical. Folks who will not get rich off multi-level marketing, real estate, gold sales, Mary Kay, or Amway will not get Konrath-style returns from self-publishing. Not in the current economy.
Now, there's still a lot I don't like about the Big Six model, and even some of the standard operating procedures from the smaller, nimbler trade publishers. But I'm currently working with an e-pub for a niche market piece, and will be working with a 'tradtional' agent to sell some mainstream SF&F. I'm looking at self-publishing as a sales tool linked with those other efforts, not as a replacement.