Of course it was. They clearly decided that the benefit to the company valuation was higher than the potential downsides when announcing to the world that they committed a criminal act via negligence.
If it wasn't a marketing stunt, they would have at most quietly settled any legal matters with huggingface behind the scenes, fixed their evaluation harness so it wouldn't happen again, and avoided the potential future liability.
If it wasn't a marketing stunt, they would have at most quietly settled any legal matters with huggingface behind the scenes, fixed their evaluation harness so it wouldn't happen again, and avoided the potential future liability.