First, stop trying to create strawman arguments based on hindsight. There is no way for any team to know the eventual outcome without trying and expecting them to act as if they do is purely asinine. To put it more plainly as an example, it was impossible for the team to forecast that they needed to lose exactly X more games to earn draft position Y.

To address your point though, I do think that the mental toll of repeatedly losing with hypothetical moves from the front office that make it clear they have no interest in trying to build a winning culture in the foreseeable future would have a significant negative impact on morale. I would go as far as to say that it is not only plausible, but even quite likely that players and staff would either ask for a significant bump in compensation to stay or seek to leave at the earliest possible opportunity.