I don't doubt they knew the reception they'd get even before they started.

One of the earlier ones that Holmes recalls was when the team completed a small piece of the Halo experience that he described as a "very traditional" Halo. User research showed that people thought it was a lot of fun, and it showed that the team was capable of making a Halo game that was true to what the series was about.

343 scrapped it, Holmes says, as it was too traditional.

They knew exactly what they were doing. They were intentionally trying to make something people were going to hate to instead make a game for themselves, and probably hoped a mythical "silent audience" would appear instead.

As is usually the case with things like Woke takeovers.