I get that the Stack Exchange license allows content to be legally reused, but this just seems like a tacky pageview grab from Ars.

Anyway, there was already a robust HN discussion about this over here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4108870

This is Stack Exchange's idea, actually:

Every couple weeks, Stack Exchange chops up some of our best Programmers content and sends it to one of our favorite websites: Ars Technica.

source: http://meta.photo.stackexchange.com/questions/2195/ars-techn... (I couldn't find an official post specifically about their arrangement.)

Fair enough. Still seems weird to effectively copy/paste a webpage rather than just linking to it, no?

It's classic syndication (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_syndication). You said it yourself: pageviews.