I'm really just going by what you said in your original post and your apparent shock someone would call the situation a mess. They've done a gigantic, scammy-seeming ICO and their investors (whose goal was likely short-term speculation) realize there might not be a public market, the sums involved are big enough to attract significant regulatory attention and as a free bonus, a nasty state actor is taking off its shirt and yelling 'FITE ME!' at them.

That's seems like a mess to me. It, as far as I can tell, seems like a mess to you. It seems like a mess to the author of the TC article. Why is it so weird they'd call it a mess?