Gdxj gold etf carnage and investor interest

Clearly what happened to thw gdxj is effecting stock prices so the question is why is it in the investors best interest for it to be an etf. I dont believe it is we have to sell at a loss because we have to much money is great for someonw like me wgo xan get discounted shares but it sucks for the shareholders. They would have been better off as a closed end fund where they could do some privite placements and have the ability to change back to an etf later than what they are doing here.