This is the key passage:

    The spacecraft then automatically switched into a safe
    mode and, at about 4:10 a.m., fired thrusters to try to
    stop the rotation. But because the wrong command had
    been uploaded, the firing caused the spacecraft to
    accelerate further. (The improper command had been
    uploaded to the satellite weeks earlier without proper
    testing; JAXA says that it is investigating what
    happened.)

Going into safe mode is a thing. It happens with NASA stuff, ESA stuff, whatever. The spacecraft failed to stabilize and went into safe mode, and that's proper. Whatever glitch in the systems, this would have saved it and allowed for recovery.

But the uploaded command to shed rotational velocity was wrong. This is what caused the loss of the spacecraft. I'm sure there will be a pretty heavy postmortem on how this happened.