> created sarcastic backlog items to mock his micro-managing and directly went against his orders publicly?

FTA: "I made another mistake in creating a parody ticket to the ones he created. I think I called it something like "Scalability", without any description, like his tickets. He sent me a private message asking about it. I realized I had gone too far and explained that I wanted to illustrate the vagueness but that I had done it in an unhelpful way. I apologized to him. "Apology accepted" he replied."

That doesn't seem great but also isn't particularly harsh.