Honestly my main concern isn't the issues surrounding TUHC, it's more so to what extent Hussie is actually involved with Homestuck and whether HICU is actually independent creatively as advertized (because this is what people paid money for.)

As for some speculation: I think what might have happened is that Hussie was actually maintaining a nuanced seperation between "Homestuck" and "HICU" that meant that there's effectively two overlapping teams- the official Homestuck stuff, and HICU. Which we sort of already knew from Hiveswap existing, but we didn't realize that HICU members were pulling "double duty" and also operating on a branch of this "official Homestuck team". So for HICU functions they're independent and only consult Hussie when they feel need to creatively, but for Homestuck functions they're serving as direct liasons.

None of that excuses the overbearing NDA language, assuming it is accurate, nor the lack of communication about this distinction assuming this interpretation is accurate.

Ultimately we have to wait and see what official statement is put out before we can come to any ultimate conclusion.