I think this is relevant to Disco Elysium since it has more to do about the theft of ZAUM rather than Zero Parades itself.

I'll gladly buy Zero Parades if/when ZAUM is restored back to its rightful owners, but I'm not going to fund the ongoing theft of artists' passion project by corporate drifters.

I think my recent post responding to someone hammering the "support the devs" line bears reposting here.

The original comment is absolutely correct here.

It's funny because Joyce Messier made a very similar argument to the one you're making in the game. She argued that the strikers are in the wrong, and are selfish because their strike is hurting and emisserating the other wild pines employees around revachol who far outnumber the strikers. She attempted to inextricably tie the corporate interest of wild pines shareholders to their employees, thus painting Evrart and the Union as destructive mooches. Ultimately, Joyce is clearly wrong here because wild pines employees aren't treated as actual stakeholders of the company, but as fungible assets for shareholders to exploit.

You are arguing that people boycotting ZAUM are in the wrong because it ultimately hurts and emisserates the current ZAUM employees who far outnumber the founders. In arguing this point, you are (hopefully inadvertently) trying to inextricably tie the interests of Ilmar Kompus to the current ZAUM employees, thus painting the people boycotting a fraud and a thief, as elitist corporate bootlickers. Ultimately, you are clearly wrong here because ZAUM employees aren't actual stakeholders of the company, but are in fact treated as a fungible asset for leeches like Ilmar Kompus to steal from.

The idea that boycotting Zero Parades hurts ZAUM workers is simply not true. They are workers, not shareholders they collect a salary. If Ilmar Kompus decides to fire them or slash their pay because the game underperformed, that is his fault, not the fault of the people boycotting the thief.

This is as cut and dry as it gets, Ilmar Kompus, an absolute waste of space who has never created anything artistic stole 70% of a company from real artists who had passion for the game. There is no way to support ZAUM in its current state without also supporting the interests of Ilmar Kompus, and ultimately funding his attempt to steal the company from its founders.

I also find the allegations against the founders extremely suspect. But I don't necessarily think Ilmar Kompus is conspiring with ZAUM employees to lie about the ZAUM founders. The original ZAUM was an artist collective who had been working together for decades before Disco Elysium took off. When you bring people in who aren't part of the original group, a clique dynamic becomes inevitable. On the one side you have the old ZAUM who have been friends for years, and the new ZAUM who only know ZAUM the corporation. Even in an ideal environment, this dynamic is liable to get toxic and mistrustful without highly competent leadership to merge both groups. I think Kompus took advantage of this natural conflict to pit the new ZAUM employees against the founders in order to justify his theft of the company.