Valve has done a good job of PR'ing this game as a hey we had some guys who loved this game and wanted to remake it hell......that may have been it at the start, but this was indeed a business decision.
LoL and HoN both have been successful/profitable releases. There was money to be made, and I'm sure once Valve talked to Icefrog (and brought him on) they found out just how many downloads of dota are coming in from Asia.........
Make and release Dota 2........ get STEAM on millions more computers world wide? hmmmmmmm............
That said I'm super excited
been playing some DOTA to get amped up, and its been fun, albeit a struggle! but good none the less.