"Remember, the official forums and reddit were on fire about..."
Neither I nor anyone I knew playing the game at the time (this would have been late SB) were in the FFXIV subreddit. I didn't know FFXIVDiscussion existed until mid-to-late ShB, and I'm not sure I had posted on the Official Forums or knew they existed back then, either. If I did, I was very uninvolved. The only out-of-game discussion I had on the game was on Disc with my FC.
I also don't think Happy frequents the Official Forums (given his every month or so visit to general to read one thread/comments he thinks is worth laughs) much at all, and I have no idea if he touches Reddit. So it's quite possible he wasn't aware (or was much less aware) of the controversy. I think he generally mains DPS Jobs, too, making him probably less aware, too.