I find the NYT to be very good at this "technically correct" sort of writing that is easily taken the wrong way. It would not have been hard for them to have included a line up front addressing that Hinton did not quit because he thinks Google acted imperfectly.
Another example of them doing this was with the "freedom" protestors in Canada. They claimed that a majority of funding for these protestors came from Canada. While yes, technically that is true, the full context is that some >40% of the funding came from foreign influencers, which is a figure that would alarm anyone if they actually just put the percentage right there. So they were technically correct, but still spun a narrative that was different than the reality.
Another example of them doing this was with the "freedom" protestors in Canada. They claimed that a majority of funding for these protestors came from Canada. While yes, technically that is true, the full context is that some >40% of the funding came from foreign influencers, which is a figure that would alarm anyone if they actually just put the percentage right there. So they were technically correct, but still spun a narrative that was different than the reality.