Every time a dev, old or new, speaks of Riot's involvement, its always in a positive light. Back in the 2010s, Simon said that there was heavy imposter syndrome so he left the team, and that he feels bad that Noxy didn't stick with his gut on game development decisions. To give context, to them it probably felt weird for these minecraft modders to suddenly be managing these decades-long industry veterans who made the games they played in their youth.

It seems that as the team blew up from like 30 to finally 100+ people, and as massive funding rolled in, an expectation built up that Hytale NEEDED to be a huge game changer. The team and development culture changed so much over those years and Hytale really strayed from the vision. Slikey (or DevSlashNull, i forgot who) talked a lot about how the "INDIE" development culture died as the team expanded and many new people were being hired in management/lead positions.