I don't know when you grew up, but game publishers have a long history of fucking things up. Rushing development, buying studios and firing the core staff were and are frequent stories.
I still love Arrowhead. It's not like their intention was to fuck over their players. I'm sure they're not super happy about the situation. Though the team being who they are, they're not exactly ones to take shit in any form lol. Which honestly makes them more enduring to me. Having suffered being a core BF5 player those devs these are not, DICE had bent over backwards to whoever screamed loudest on the subreddit which did nothing but damage the game and its lifespan. Granted this situation isn't totally comparable, but the parallels are there.
They don't need to be connected to their audience. Dumbass people continue to buy loot crates, battle passes, unfinished early access games, overprices skins, etc...