[nolok]

He was here saying his lawyer validated everything he was saying when anyone with any little amount of experience with lawyers and B2B legal case could immediately tell no actual decent lawyer would have validated any of that. And what he said here on HN ended up being used against him in the injuction ...

So either he stopped listening to the people around him (including lawyer in a legal case), or the people around him are chosen based on their ability to say yes rather than be useful.

I don't know about the ownership of Automattic to know if there is a board not doing its job either or if they can't do anything anyway.

And ultimately the legal cases "doesn't matter" grand scale, but the damage he is doing to public perception is immense. There are a bazillion marketing agencies out there being affected by his emotionnal breakdown, so if WP Engine were to put themselves in the middle as a separate, "safe" provider they might even benefit even more from the situation. People don't like it when you touch their wallet.

[grvdrm]

You said it best: sounds like he surrounds himself with people (and lawyers) that tell him what he wants to hear.

Have worked for someone like that before - it is not fun.