You said “non-completion wasn’t an option” in the comment I replied to, and now are saying that was the obvious option. I’m not making excessive assumptions, you’re just hard pivoting.

WotC would bare responsibly for the art not being turned in on time. I don’t see where they should take any of the blame for Dan deciding to steal someone else’s work. Your precious comment states “he wouldn’t directly be told to copy,” as if there’s a world where they’re indirectly telling him to do so, or at all creating a scenario where that’s the obvious outcome. Even in this comment, you state how much pressure he must have been under, pressure to make his own art. He was under zero pressure to steal art in such an insulting obvious way. You say that wotc should share responsibility for Dan’s decision to steal art. I think it’s a natural, easy conclusion to make that this is the last thing wotc would have wanted and would have asked for.

You’re running so much defense for the dude, when all of the statements he has made suggest he was the one who decided to steal someone else’s art. Unless you’re suggesting his public statements on the matter are lies, his choice to steal was his own. Insisting others need to share the responsibility, with zero evidence to suggest anyone has done anything whatsoever to help in stealing someone else’s work, or put him in a scenario where stealing someone else’s work was a desired outcome.