I'm editing posting here without reading all the comments. I just want to respond as to whether they're a big deal.
Until recently, if you voted for the Hugos and you were a completely fair and conscientious voter (meaning you made sure you read every entry before you voted) you had to hunt down the issues of magazines, the anthologies, etc, to find the stories to vote for them. Right now, I am seriously annoyed that the non-fic entries are almost always small press, and almost always out of print by the time the Hugos come along, so they're impossible to find. I can't go hunting an Analog issue from 14 months ago if I didn't subscribe to it.
One of the reasons we run the Hugo stories is that we have the ability to present to Hugo voters all the short stories available to vote on, no matter how obscure their original printing was. If you are eligible to vote, you don't have to go hunting old issues, or hoping the author or magazine will put them online (Asimov's does this). You can come here and get, if we're able to get all the rights, every short story, listen to them all, and make your decision. If you think three are "meh" and two are good, then your decision is that much easier.
Sure, most of you aren't Hugo voters. Maybe the Worldcon isn't near you, or you don't want to/can't travel, or you don't want to/can't pay the supporting membership in order to vote. But I think there are enough voters, and enough people who care enough for the Hugos to be interested as to what's nominated, to make this five-week-separation from our usual programming worth it.
(edit- added) Also, for one, I'm super grateful to Dave for doing the Hugos this year. It kept us from silence, and it kept the tradition going- they didn't know if the new editor would want to run the Hugos, then the thing to do was do what the previous editor wanted. And if I had come on with the job to take over EP, deal with the difficulties of transition, AND track down all the rights to the Hugo stories, I would have gone mad. Dave did the podcast a great service, and even though some may not like the five weeks of these particular free stories, I'm thrilled that we have them.