That guy pitching was Casey Hudson, director and producer of the Mass Effect trilogy and Star Wars KOTR. Bit unfair not to mention that. I think he genuinely thought early on he could make a great live service game, he had the resume to tell EA that Anthem should be a single player experience if he wanted to. Him leaving the project, and tbh leaving the whole company for awhile was a huge blow.
It's been a rocky road for BioWare for over a decade now. I don't like EA at all, and I agree they were meddling to much, but the studio was not doing great. They basically were down to one shot of needing a new Mass Effect game. And it had to be amazing and sell huge numbers. I'm convinced they were still capable of that.