why not? i think it's cool to have to interface with professional organizations.
Because it has never worked well for any other similarly-sized software project. As a very small project, Counterparty is at a disadvantage in several ways, but at an advantage in terms of agility and its ability to operate under a single clear vision. Creating a foundation, board, and bylaws takes away those advantages. A project doesn't create those things because they're cool. They're created because the project becomes big enough to require them and this project isn't even close to big enough for that.
Robby feels this is necessary because Counterparty has stakeholders and he doesn't want the associated accountability but that doesn't change any of the above.