The plural of anecdote is not data - and it was exactly these sort of anecdotes that led to the anti-D&D hysteria as well. Often something else was going on - for instance "Mazes & Monsters itself was very loosely based on an incident where a child prodigy who was known to be an avid D&D player commited suicide. The media was quick to blame D&D, but further investigation revealed he was suffering depression because he realized he was gay and didn't know how to tell his conservative religious parents.
You're being quick to not blame chat bot companies for carelessness in this rush to market dominance. The analogy only goes so far, DnD ultimately was not part of a post-capitalist market consolidation phase by tech barons that stands to completely reshape society.
It's important to recognize the danger AI companions can pose to individuals, because the cat is out of the bag and the paradigm is here to stay. Therefore we need to examine cases like this thoroughly in order to build safer systems.