Clearly the "There are a lot of people at Larian who play D&D and there are a lot of game sessions going on continuously" PR lines are intended to address this criticism. In fact this week's interview seemed to be all about addressing that criticism.
That article is from June 2019, well before anyone know knew to what extent the rules would be modified, and hence, the criticism for it.
In any event, going back to the original point ("Well, and we know this for a fact because Larian told us they didn't like D&D combat"), Larian did not say they don't like the combat from D&D. If that is your interpretation, that's on you; but don't try to pass it off as fact.
