I see it as a perfect example of the idea that he is loyal to a fault in regards to his "guys".
i think this is true...but to gain his loyalty you have to be on fire and loyal to the organization. guys he lets go are usually guys that either decided they weren't loving it here (peppers) or guys who were essentially half-assing it (fox and his JR's sons).
if you show loyalty to him he's going to be loyal to you. the '09-'10 house cleaning was just an effort to get the club back on track (that probably didn't go far enough since hurney was kept around). truthfully, in looking at the way JR was/is with greg olsen's situation with his twins (and quite a few others) you can tell that he really cares about his guys...esp. his players. that is probably the most extreme example, but there have been quite a few that showed the depth of his loyalty to his players that wanted to be here. i mean it had such an impact on olsen that he and his wife named the twin that is having heart issues after richardson.
i don't completely trust him to handle the hiring of a new GM or other personnel and football matters. a strength of a good business owner is finding the right guy(s) to make those calls for you. i think he trusts hurney a lot, probably too much, but he trusts him to make good decisions for the team as far as personnel is concerned. i just wish hurney did better.