Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is much harder to take something away, than to have never granted it in the first place. Also if an employee chose to take a lower salary to work at a company with a relaxed culture, and that culture becomes just like any company, why wouldn't that employee expect their salary to be upped accordingly?
This article itself never mentions complaints about money. It reads to me that some employees don't want to accept the revised growth focused values, thus getting let go and still felt salty/betrayed about this. If the culture will be gone no matter what because of the company's own reality, and they refuse to accept such changes, isn't departure an inevitable outcome?
Sure, but the point I am making is that it is a material change to established terms and conditions.
Interestingly, one of the standard lies told during acquisitions is that "nothing will change", it's quite unusual for an acquisition target to do something like this. Usually its managers and even its previous owners if they become employees of the acquirer are taken by surprise when head office stamps on them.