As a counterpoint to Ebay's horribleness: back in the day at Etsy, we were very grateful for Ina's blog and her participation with the Etsy seller community. She was an important and respected voice in ecommerce, especially for small business owners who often struggled to choose between different online platforms. When she offered critique to a particular platform, it was always measured, well-reasoned, and fair.
All the Etsians that I'm still in touch with were horrified and outraged when we learned of this story.
Yeah, it was quite a trip to read this article as a former Etsian (for context to unaware readers: Etsy was a somewhat frequent target of the blog in question here, along with obviously eBay).
I'm not going to pretend we didn't roll our eyes from time-to-time when a new article came out that seemed exaggerated, but the thought of retaliation never crossed anyone's mind.
I'm pretty sure we would've been summarily fired if we had even made contact with Ina, let alone any of the psycho shit outlined here.
I guess a counterpoint to your story: I worked at eBay when the story broke. We were all aware of Ina's blog and followed it regularly. As you mentioned, she was a great voice for e-commerce, and one that the vast majority of us appreciated. So, when the story broke, every co-worker I messaged was horrified and outraged as well. The fact that it went up as high as it did was really disgusting (and honestly, embarrassing).
All the Etsians that I'm still in touch with were horrified and outraged when we learned of this story.