Let's say that 10,000 people see an Oakley banner, and Jon repping their goggles. I'll be generous and say that if even 1000 of those people decided that freeskiing was cool, the spreading out effect of what they buy will be a drop in the bucket across the ski industry. And of that money, how much is going to go to product development to make new "innovative" gear to make skiing better? When extra money is made, it is simply a larger profit for them. They aren't going to give that back to you, and to argue otherwise is simply naive.
Exposure in LA means absolutely nothing to my skiing. Exposure in general does not improve the state of skiing. Events like JOI push the borders of what is possible on skis, but the only real thing that comes out of them is advertising of products. They don't let the public get their shred on, (but the Open that Jon and Simon put on last year was a good event in this respect) and will waste a ton of resources making snow in LA that might not be wasted in someplace with a colder climate that (gosh!) actually receives snow. Even if it is the sponsors paying, then at least they save some money, which they could decide (but aren't obligated) to give to Alpine Initiatives.