Off-topic, is there any cue in the above comment to indicate 'motivated' should be read as 'has a defined motive' vs 'enthusiastic / hard-working' ?

Well, if you click through and look at the OPs work they have previously written an article about the company they describe as, "basically accused the school and its chief officer of fraud".

On the comment itself though it is looking for former employees and stressing the anonymous source angle. If I'm promising not to reveal the identities off the bat I'm clearly fishing for negative views on something. Have you ever read an article where an anonymous source said something glowingly positive about a subject?

I sort of agree that Lambda School is probably over selling itself but if I were looking to learn more about it in a balanced manner I would probably use more neutral language when soliciting information.

That’s not off topic, because i read the comment the other way.

That’s not what “motivated” means in this context.