They did all this because they know that the vast majority of the playerbase will never hear about this, and many of those that do will either forget, or simply not care enough to boycott the game. We’re in an age of apathy across the board, with so much bad press that any given scandal just fades into the background noise.
My sister is like this, and she’s basically just constantly anxious about what she’s supposed to be doing and how people feel about her, so she forces herself to be talkative and energetic even though it exhausts her. It’s sad to know that behind her smile she’s just always stressed out about every little thing that she construes as someone maybe being mad at her. I’m glad that over the years I’ve been able to get her to be her real self around me, but I haven’t been able to get her to see a therapist yet.