Personally, I think hey took the job, took the money and may have had some idea what the character looked like and didn't care. It was only after when they went 'oh shit' what have I done, I'll be kicked out of the club and group I am apart of. I think they kicked up a fuss because that community would have hung then for doing the VA work for that visual character which would have not gone down well.
Extremely smart to pre-empt the upcomig controversary or maybe just to save their Ree account.
Just my 2 cents.