So coming from compassion allowed him to later bury that compassion by sometimes taking the husband's side if he paid more (if the allegation is true)?
The opposite terminology being "Mitoch Shelo Lishmah, Ba Lishmah"
Why not? He started with caring, then realized its a money making business (and transition supposedly happened at a time that he was otherwise "down" and little Yetzer Hara got involved to "make life easier for his "poor" family").