Fair, but I don't think we need to know what happened to asses what is happening now.

I consider that this being discussed in a public sphere a failure regardless of situation as it looks bad on the company no matter what.

If a person feels their only way out is to appeal to the mob then I think the people doing the management have made a misstep. If that person has a history of appealing to the mob then it is still a misstep as that should have been considered when dealing with the issue.

Perhaps they did the calculus and this is the best result, but looking in, it doesn't feel like it.