If you don't mind, what actually did happen with Phoenix Point?

Oh, man, where to begin. You're right that it involves the Epic exclusivity, but that is honestly the least of their slights. It's an instance of the coverup being worse than the crime. The Epic thing rightfully rankled people (including me, who backed it), but their attitude and lies were what really ruined it all for me. They absolutely nuked their reputation.

if they did a Kickstarter or something and then took Epic money, is pretty bullshit.

Which is exactly what they did. Then lied about Steam keys being promised to backers on release. And they said they'd be fine if every single backer requested a refund, because they'd be fine with Epic money. Yeah, bitch, would you have been fine for the years you were supported by us, you smarmy pricks?! So, yeah, they sold out, lied, took shots at the community that had supported them, made lame excuses, banned people, and more. They also went about it really incompetently, where they still promised Steam keys at around the time they took the Epic money.

Check out the subreddit's best of; it's all from years ago, and all bashing the game. My post is even there, bringing the receipts.

Incidentally, there's like five people on the sub at the moment; it's totally dead. They killed it.

PP devs looked at what Metro had done at the time (who at least delivered existing preorders on Steam), and said "hold my beer," told founding backers to get fucked, and basically laughed their way to the bank as they broke their promises, which they claimed to have never made, while saying they'd be fine if the people who'd provided the money to produce the game all demanded refunds.

Yeah. Yeah...