youre almost 100% right, he didnt cheat per se but he gets a LOT of hate because he copied a really old game and inserted sprites that very much look like they were ripped off. he makes like 50k a day but gets a lot of hate because of those points.

yeah it sounds like the internet hate machine got to him… no one likes it when you do something that makes them feel less than, especially if its something that they believe “they could have made!”