Here is my take on the fundamentals of this issue, which I know many here will disagree with. But it is the reason I regard arguments about who is the worse actor here as less important.
I believe it is wrong to try and coerce peaceful people to try and make them do something they otherwise would not choose to do. It is also wrong to defraud them for the same purpose.
So we have the FAA regulators who are trying to coerce people and prevent them from flying in a manner that the people would choose to which does not endanger other innocent people to any greater degree than normal activities of daily living.
We then have the operator who may have been involved in defrauding passengers.
Both bad actors in my view.
Frankly I prefer the common law approach of suing and arresting people after they commit torts, frauds and crimes, rather than trying to predict who might do so in the future. Obviously there are cases of clear and imminent danger, but most flying activities don’t fall into that category.