Ayslyn WoTC has issued a formal apology to the first employee that raised the issue - so we can assume that that happened. The MtG artist they've non-personed produced a copy of the letter where WoTC cites it's reasons for removing her and her work (she produced a parody MtG card, noted it was a parody and a piece of artistic self-expression ... WoTC then went full the 'Mary Whitehouse' on her)
The whole disclaimer thing appeared to come after a minor storm of criticism on twitter - so looks like a knee jerk response to that. Afterwards the minority former employees went public with their complaints - again, one complaint has definitely been upheld by WoTC itself.
So the optics are do the easy thing. It's like so many things, a product can be branded as supporting any abstract cause but that means very little if, in creating that product, very real harm is done. It's the usual corporate obfuscation eg: put a green planet logo on your sneakers and a vegan friendly tag while manufacturing said sneakers in a 3rd world country (known for it's violations of humans rights) sweatshop using child labour while offsetting the company CO2 emissions by the very fact of manufacturing off shore (frequently in countries with lax pollution laws).
The problem with companies like WoTC isn't the actual product, it's the process - but they want concentrate on the imagined sins of their products because that is more publicly obvious and, again, easier. The great irony of times is that the very people that most of these abstract causes are critical of are the very people that profit from it - so all those supposed gains just become so much window dressing in the metaphorical store front designed to siphon money into the same pockets they always have.
It's a zero sum game where nothing substantial actual changes. Too often (and I'm showing my age here) proper change is deflected as 'small gains over time will win the race'. Yet, what I have seen happen is no change over time just a convenient illusion. I'm not naive, any company is about making profit, and that profit generates wealth etc etc but I care less about token disclaimers and more about, maybe, being fairer to the people that actually produce the product that creates that profit.
The people complaining are consumers and they are already privileged to be in the position to consume, just like people with access to the internet are already privileged to have that access. In the big picture the consumers are okie - they're not really being directly hurt by anything and, if they don't like it, they can simply not consume it (the exception being products that are mis-sold or products that are known, by the company, to be faulty eg: certain cars produced in the 1970's). The people tangibly impacted by any company are the people that work for it, either directly or indirectly - and that is where real change has to occur before any medal wearing chest thumping can be justified or congratulated.
Plus we've have got to move beyond token gestures and diversity hires - this stuff just excuses otherwise bad behaviour. We have to move towards a situation were elements of anyone's character that are immutable are irrelevant as the opportunities are equal and respect, and fair treatment, universal.
TL;DR The optics, over many months (nay, years) is that WoTC is a bad faith operator. These are not the first complaints about WoTC's actual conduct (they tried, for a very long time, to bury a certain issue involving a total lack of due diligence with their MtG organised play and the prior criminal misdemeanours of some of their accredited judges)