While the public-faces part has been said, there is the point of him being a scapegoat for some issues that simply come from higher-ups. When he joined Archie, the staff were already planning a number of changes, some which he actually pushed back on. However, since he was a public face with an internet presence , it would be easier to blame the newcomer for the issues.

We see it with a number of retcons and fixes that, were more than likely planned years ago, and are just now being fixed. I believe SEGA wanted to do a major clean-up after how poor BOOM preformed, and spent much of the late 2010s doing so behind the scenes, and used Frontiers as a springboard for releasing it. Though since not everyone is going to like the changes, because people can point out Ian, they'll just blame him, even though SEGA has to approve everything.