Don't know if they mentioned something about it before on itch, as far as I know after the tracing stuff was discovered they wrote just a few not very convincing tweets and a few months later the steam relase happened, where nothing was mentioned until people's comments started to appear. What some people of those thought, myself included, was that the game could quite possibly still contain the traced/stolen designs given the lack of taking responsibility in which the tweets were written. It's good that this does not seem to be the case, thet took a minimum of responsibility.
Very much agree with your last point. But if we eat each other with lies and deception we will go nowhere. Just remember that the people up there are humans like us. We have to be better so that we don't end up like them. Have a nice walk on the road of life.