If that were true, it would be an incredibly costly way to spread FUD, with an almost negligible impact in the end!! I can come up with at least a dozen more effective ways to spread FUD if someone were truly willing to invest that much money.
My belief goes to their belief in mining pools that won't enjoy those bitcoin. If a mining pool is greedy and take it, that mining pool will be criticized by community and I did not check but some mistakenly transactions like this one, only went to big mining pools. I remembered a case for Etheremine pool for ETH years ago too.
They bet that a mining pool can get more income if it is used by miners a long time. My thinking could be wrong, I admit that.
I checked and Ethermine pool was ready to refund it to sender but sender did not contact them to claim it.
Mining Pools Distribute $2.4M Transaction Fee After Flood of Phoney Refund Claims