Seems like they could’ve avoided a lot of the failure with a normal sponsorship.

What they attempted here seems akin to a “mega-sponsorship” with more baggage than they were prepares for.

I don’t think taking over/contributing to an OSS project is a bad marketing move at all, but typically you’d contribute the company’s resources and expertise to make it worth it.

Hiring the project lead is definitely a good step, but the timing feels off. Something that would feel more natural to me:

Sponsorship -> Hire the guy -> Transfer branding

All with some time in between.

They way it feels less like a hostile takeover, which users have been trained to quickly jump ship when happening.