There's been a pretty wide range of responses, and while some boil down to that, I think the general trend is attachment and people fearing the result of some rw 'scab' taking over. Elkaki above's comparison to an abusive relationship feels really on the mark.
Even without all that though, sometimes it's genuinely hard for people to break habits; and many of these habits are years old. Doesn't really come down to region or logic.
The only good that can truly come of this at this stage is sabotaging Huffman's hopes of cashing out for a second time, after he sold his stake for a ""mere"" 10 million back in the day.