While I'm not cynical believe it was intentional at all, likely someone in over their heads running a business and then scrambling, It was the perfect shell game - they kept contracting with different labels and bands, and then also kept using a bunch of different pressing plants*, so it wouldn't have been clear to any one person truly how dire it was for the last few months. They likely were also using Bandbux sales, in-stock sales, and pre-orders to pay off some bills as records did ship to customers. That keeps word from spreading around the industry about avoiding them.
Without revealing sources, I now know they worked with a company last year (and still owe them a fair bit of $) to try to sort things out financially, and while they may have been handed the right tools to get on a better path, their continued existence was still a dicey situation; described as "touch and go" for the next 4 to 6 months as of July. I only heard about it after the bankruptcy filing.
*No idea if related, but Blue Sprocket posted on IG in July about getting all new presses and then in December announce that they're wrapping up final orders and closing up shop. They're not even the plant awaiting payment (at this point, likely pennies on the dollar) on 4 pallets of records. It sucks for the individual customers, bands, and labels but the pressing plants are going to take the biggest hit; big cost outlay for time and materials.
