The people using it from the beginning were those who knew what it was. By participating they doomed people who were new to this type of scam/site. I saw tons of twitter posts and forum posts of people just referring others saying you will get double your money back, without explanation of what it really was.
The people who were playing this game with full knowledge that earlier investors were being paid out of the revenues from later ones, were keeping careful track of deposits versus payouts, and had a good idea of when the site would fold.
The person who got the site shut down prematurely cheated these people out of their returns.
It's like you're playing Blackjack, and just as you have a really good hand, some idiot tips over the table, and causes the casino to void the game.
When you complain, he says "Well, you deserved it for playing Blackjack." And then goes on and on about all the naive people he saved from losing money, who didn't know what the game "really was."
The Internet is full of busybodies who stick their noses into things that are none of their concern.