I think a way to look at is like this:
They chose to get in bed with folks who have attacked MANY of their employees.
Heck I know one who attacked the ENTIRE company over a RUMOR about one book.
Now some will point to look at the crowdfunding numbers. Oh you mean the PROOF that if you move beyond the direct market-you can find an audience? A cry that many have screamed about the very books that group have been hostile about?
A CG variant or series under Dynamite was NOT going to bring in those crowdfunding amounts. It couldn't.
PRICE-a crowd funded book is not going for $3.99 on those crowd funded sites. To equal that money-you would need what 50 variants for one issue? And what store would do that?
There are indy books that AVERAGE 6-10 variant covers an issue. Like Vampire Tramp. I have only seen 1 cover in stores. And she near 100 issues. Even cheesecake Grimm Fairy Tales can't get that many variants in stores.
Audience-crowd funding is open to EVERYONE. The Direct Market is NOT. You are at the MERCY of those 2000 comic book stores. And we all know how they treat books NOT under the DC or Marvel banner.
The risk versus reward was not worth it. Especially when not all the targets of that group have come out publicly.
What if one of the targets was someone who had INFLUENCE over licenses? Would you want to lose Shaft or Red Sonja to someone else because of that?