I don’t think considering a fork is beyond reasonable. And cracking down on people with dissenting opinions is a sure way to increase any skepticism the community has and discourage us to stay.
And as for us proving ourselves to him, it seems we already have. He bought.
If we have a CEO who supports the community, many of those people will calm down, and those who don’t we can work around like we have always done and find other ways to discourage their behavior without turning the place into a dictatorship