I am very skeptical that this will happen, or even if it does, that it will be sustained. "Preservation" does not remain "objective" for long...
Jim was making a bit of a dramatic point, but actually, these PD things should be allowed to be given away for free (and once composer/publishing copyrights enter the PD, they surely could be with no possible legal fallout) as a counter-balance to consumers paying for issues of the material that have had no improvements/value-added/whatever. Once upon a time, this was all but impossible. Now, it's not.
And please, once and for all, understand this - my issue with Pujols is not that he's a "thief" (at least not consistently, it's pretty well-established that he is at times, but not always). It's that he's a con-man who sells brings product to market without improving it one iota. It may be legal as hell, but it's still a con-job, and those who buy the product not knowing this (which is by no means everybody) are being played for fools. That too is legal, but "the law" quite often serves to protect those with no ethics from those who have no sense. And no, I'm not ok with that. And yes, I do advocate being proactive in protecting one's self from being conned.
More? Relative to the respective time frames? The correct answer, of course, is "neither". And who will be doing more for it (notice, we're talking about the music itself, not the musician(s), you mention the album itself, not anybody involved with it) once all the copies are sold - JLH, who did his part quite nicely, or the people who will no doubt make lossless files available - at no cost - in some form or fashion so that the discourse can continue? It's a continuum of good deeds being done. Sometimes "the law" facilitates the good deeds, sometimes it hinders it. But thankfully, good (or good enough) things still get done until even better things get done, and even while bad things go on.
And once the whole thing goes PD, should there be any - will there be any - ethical justification for some schmuck issuing a xerox of the JLH release and not compensating anybody because they're not "legally" compelled to do so, or for anybody actually buying it just because they "like objects"? That should all be gone by then, but hell, it should be mostly gone by now, and it's not. Here's to hope, right?
Sorry to hear that you're getting screwed, btw. Seriously. Maybe JLH can put you in touch with a publisher who does with writing what he does with music.
In the meantime, imagine how pissed off you'd be if people were just xeroxing your work and then charging their students for it! Maybe once it goes PD, they'll do just that.
And that would suck.