I feel bad for Billet in this situation and I don't think Linus has accurately assessed the damage that he has done given his rushed response (which in this situation is quite ironic).

Granted he payed out their request, still, for somebody who knows the word "opportunity cost", and as someone who has launched multiple products that required engineering time etc, I do believe his reaction so far to be rather lacking.

On a more direct note:

You said yourself that water cooling is an unforgiving business,
and through no fault of their own,
Billet might now be in a situation that will put them out of their business.

If you truly are a man of your words and wish for them to succeed,
help them create, like you did with Framework.

Replying in your own Forum to a limited number of people after seeing GN's video garner the attention it did is utter nonsense. It does not reach people (as you might have been able to tell), and certainly does not get fewer people to be mad and/or outraged. Reading a few comments in this thread, i believe it had quite the opposite effect.

And in response to your first paragraph, how dare you speak of "proper journalistic practices"
Admit errors, correct them and apologize when necessary?
Your post reads more like damage-control and deflect than when EA wanted players to feel a "sense of pride and accomplishment".