When analyzing this issue and the Elon Musk issue, keep in mind the biggest takeaway from the Blake Lively story, which is that even a relative nobody like Justin Baldoni can benefit from a PR strategy that can control the comment sections and virality of good press, bad press, and everything in between, to the point where your opinion of a public figure has been all but molded by these shadow operatives without you even realizing it.
Why did we ever think Mark Zuckerberg was a liberal, or sympathetic to liberal causes? Why did we ever think Elon Musk had an above room temperature IQ? It's not our fault that we've got more important things to do than to second guess our first impressions of public figures.
Sure, it seems obvious now that he's always been a sociopath who would gladly inflict psychological distress on millions of people if it meant his stock would go up one quarter of a point, but let's not blame ourselves for failing to see him for what he really is. It's by design that anything we think we know about a famous person has gone through many, many filters and focus groups.