Seems like the individuals were hit because of their employers. This is the first widely public instance of such things happening. I'd assume non-maintainer developers from Iran or Cuba could have been just ignored.

The way they communicate doesn't really make it clear whether they refuse to work with sanctioned companies, with all residents of the sanctioned countries or with all nationals of the sanctioned countries wherever they reside. For some individuals it can indeed be tracked that their employer may be sanctioned, but IMO community should not be left guessing

Yeah, I don't disagree with your assessment. It could have been handed both more bluntly and yet with just a little more grace than what we are seeing.