He ruined two tournaments in a row, first by withdrawing from the middle of a round robin tournament and second by intentionally throwing a game. If Niemann now ends up qualifying by less than 3 points the guy in 9th will justifiably be extremely upset.

>I would have thought that chess fans would have seen this as a brave and perhaps even virtuous move?

There were many people who defended him withdrawing from Sinquefield but throwing a game is just embarressing, especially in the qualification stage.