I can't say that I completely agree with the "riding high" view.Fair enough... but if they'd ended any dispute with NN and produced stellar work, who would have wanted to bear a grudge? Especially if they'd then assisted and mentored NN into the MVP program. They could have been heroes. I don't see how that can be possible now. So I perceive nothing but loss; yes, once again clever human beings have managed to deliver a lose-lose scenario for themselves.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
