I think both things can be true. EA can be trying to divert the spotlight from their game, but I also think gamers need recognize the huge problems with negativity, toxicity, and just plain old awful behavior.

This is from someone who basically quit playing video games cold turkey a few years ago because I just couldn't stand being surrounded by negative people constantly (also the fact that I was pretty into games with a fun online progression systems, and lootboxes/microtransactions are now basically the only progression system in every single game.)

If you want to play multiplayer games, it's just part of the experience that you're going to deal with some awful behavior at some point in your play session. I don't have this happen nearly as often with any of my other hobbies, and it really just began to suck the fun out of video games for me.