Interesting topic, while it is sad to see money disappearing from DH, I figure any publicity generated for our sport be it thru DH, freeride comps, XC, whatever has got to be good for the development of the sport and the sweet sweet technology we all love.
You'd have to assume that "freeriders" have decided that what they do is more fun than riding DH competitively, I mean, people don't do things unless they're fun, except for roadies.
I think the whole "freeride" moniker is just a colossal wank though, most if not all of the guys I know who ride do DH, jump, ride skateparks and street and no-one calls it freeriding, I agree with that quote from Rennie, it's just riding.
Who's the most skillful? Hard to say, obivously riding skinnies and hucking 40 foot cliffs takes skill (and testicles the size of grapefruit) but so does bombing a rock garden or railing a crazy off-camber corner, seeing the pros hitting the rock garden at Fellcrag blew my mind too, Hannah was out of control, I didn't even have time to get my camera focused before he blew past me. I'd have to say the pro DH'ers win it though, the past 2 Redbull events (The ride and the Rampage) have shown that pro downhillers have no problems mixing it up with the best pro freeriders and, in the case of the Redbull Ride, putting them to shame.
Consider my 2 cents given.