The author explains this - initially, responding to the Mootype rep was not really given much thought or concern, for the same reasons you point out.
But then the rep started emailing EVERYONE, until eventually someone's manager started to panic about it. And when managers start to panic, it becomes everyone's problem.
So really this ended up being simply a successful scare tactic by Monotype.
But when it turns out to be a basically fraudulent report, now they suffer reputational damage both internally to this company (who I expect would now instruct any design agencies they use to not use any Monotype fonts in their projects), and now externally as this is reported on! So the 'scare tactic' might have been successful but the overall exercise actually seems pretty damaging to Monotype all in all...
But then the rep started emailing EVERYONE, until eventually someone's manager started to panic about it. And when managers start to panic, it becomes everyone's problem.
So really this ended up being simply a successful scare tactic by Monotype.