They did not have any reason to personally attack the leads except out of spite,

Lol what the honest fuck are you talking about?

They were facing a boycott because it seemed like they fired the original creators to avoid paying the employees.

They could have issued a statement saying that they would still pay the remaining employees and everyone would assume that they still fired the creators out of greed reasons. If the creators actually didn’t do their jobs, then they would want to make it clear that they are the ones actually committed to making a good game and this has nothing to do with greed.

That may not be the case, but at present we simply do not know what the reality of the situation was.