If anyone involved with the design or release of Treevil actually played the game at all, they might have thought twice, much less if there was any consideration of reaction in beta (e.g. see even the early first takes in 🧪 Early Information on new Rare Challange Event Heroes for Challange Festival Event [Part of The Beta Beat v44] - #6 by PlayForFun , which instantly predicted the Treevil-Rush issue)
If this wasn’t a gross miscalculation (plus willful deafness to feedback), it would seem SG knew perfectly well and just didn’t care. That doesn’t necessarily mean “conspiracy,” but at least disregard.