Unfortunately “no” doesn’t constitute a rebuttal, and the responding commenter makes many valid points.
It is self-evident that this study tangibly involved people in the scope, those people did not provide consent prior, and now openly state their grievances. It is nothing short of arguing in bad faith to claim otherwise.
Repeating the same thing over and over does not make it a fact.
Maybe the stated aim of the research was to study the process. But what they actually did was study how the people involved implemented it.
Being publicly manipulated into merging buggy patches, and wasting hours of people's time are two pretty obvious effects this study had that could cause some amount of distress and thus it cannot be dismissed as simply "studying the process".
It is self-evident that this study tangibly involved people in the scope, those people did not provide consent prior, and now openly state their grievances. It is nothing short of arguing in bad faith to claim otherwise.