It doesn’t matter because aggrieved employees with a compelling story will always have going public with real or imagined grievances as an option. The persons protected class is just another attribute — this is a story because the subjects are notable.

If a company is responsible in how they manage, follows policies, etc they are fine. If executives or others are allowed to misbehave and the company is too cheap to buy silence, things may not be fine.

What’s the real story here? I don’t see evidence of incompetence. But you can be fired for any legal reason in absence of a contract. Maybe there’s some unknown political or other issue. Maybe some conduct crossed a line. Who knows.