They know that people not caring or being aware of them isn’t going to cut it, people who are aware of it and its impacts don’t want it. And since it is publicly disclosed that it’s there in the game, and there are lists and curators to make that more apparent, not knowing isn’t likely to be something to last for long.
So it’s only natural they’d want to try and improve their image, though this little stunt definitely did not help them.
I don’t own the game but I would if I did. I don’t have a windows machine to Idle it on that wouldn’t be bogged down by this game so idling it to rack up a few hours to leave a review isn’t exactly feasible.