The problem is that everyone takes the current rate into consideration, which is one of the downsides of using Bitcoin to make payments. The only remedy is to never think about it; sometimes I look at my old transactions for something I purchased in the past and have a restless night after looking at the current rate.
I dont think theymos took the current exchange rate into account. He said $5.9 million spread across 11 years. He also mentioned $100k a month that he was sending to the development team.... so I assume that was the dollar value at the exchange rate at the time. Thats an awful lot of money IMHO and Im really sorry that the project ended in such a disgraceful way.