Nah, he's the one who was pushing for a Christmas deadline and even cited the writer's inability to deliver rushed slop as an excuse for firing. The game wasn't in any rush otherwise and Embercat had much more development in mind that he had to scrap/cut short.
If anything disingenuous is going on it'd be to avoid paying him since I'm positive they get bonuses for stuff like project completion etc. But I don't think it's that either. There's no reason to doubt his stated reasons. He just genuinely took 2 years to check on the story and realize he didn't like the style and well, acted out of pocket.