It does feel, as you put it, "white guilt-y", but I don't think it's performative or intended to be condescending. I think staff has just been burned by the type of fanbase FR has cultivated in the last decade one too many times and are playing it safe. (From their perspective. I think they're damned if they do and damned if they don't and am not sure I would have handled this the way they did, TBH.)