Except that it actually makes little to no sense if you actually think about it instead of blindly buy into it.

Nah, that doesn't make much sense if you actually think about it instead of blindly buy into it.

1 - Pretending to be an idiot.

2 - All FPH-themed subreddits created or taken over immediately after the FPH ban were banned for ban evasion. Admins are not impotent idiots bound by the dumb letter of the rules. Nobody was banned for criticizing Pao.

3 - Pretending to be an idiot to an extent that's actually insulting to anyone with above room temperature intelligence, as if there's a remote possibility that we are stupid enough to buy it.

4 - The only person who could explain that Pao was defending free speech from the board while Pao was still employed by the board was Pao herself. If Yishan tried to do that that would've been deeply offensive and damaging to her. Damaging because employers generally don't like when the employees shift the blame like that, offensive because it was her decision to make (which she didn't make for obvious reasons), not someone's who "knows better" and "can explain it better".

Anyway, as I said, we just have to wait. If the Purge happens, then Yishan probably wasn't straying to far from the truth: from the damage control perspective it wouldn't make a shred of sense to fire Pao before the purge, instead starting the reign of the permanent CEO with such a controversial decision. The only way that can make sense would be if she was in fact against it.