I've been following this whole thing, off of Ars, here in our forum, talking to people in Discord, reading comments on Hackaday, watching videos, and what I've noticed is the people who are the most mad are the ones who don't own Bambu hardware (and tend to tell you they would never buy it). And the people who are the most sanguine and "let's see what happens" are the ones who do own it, and will actually be affected by changes.
That's why it feels like FUD.
I mostly agree with you that people are running well ahead of what the situation is, with talk of subscription fees, locking down print farms, whatever. We don't actually know what Bambu intends at this point, and people are getting a bit wild with the speculation then running ahead as if that speculation is fact. I think at the core of this is a lack of trust though, and that's understandable when Bambu is acting like this.
However, I disagree more with this quoted block as it doesn't reflect my personal experience with where the controversy is coming from. I've got an X1c and know half a dozen others, all of whom are livid about this. The situation dragged Jeff Geerling out to make a video about the matter, mostly focused on the lack of trust, and did so on his second channel so I'm not buying any argument that it was just chasing controversy for clout. He's not the only one that has done so. The bambu subreddit was also on fire for several days after the first news of this dropped.
Personally I've locked my X1C into LAN mode and blocked its access to the internet at the router level because of this, despite it being considerably less convenient to use that way.
It's fair to be skeptical of peoples motives, particularly on a topic like this where there's a large number of 3D printer enthusiasts that loathe Bambu. But I don't think this is a situation where it's mainly non-owners stirring the pot, which is how I'm taking what you said above.
