Focusing in on this one aspect: "the whole fucking point of removing the UHC was to promote the show"

Even if you fully buy into Gio's narrative (you shouldn't but whatever), this is plainly untrue. Hussie had been threatening to take legal action for a long time throughout the whole ordeal. Homestuck is literally right now hosting a (slightly out of date) version of the UHC! They wouldn't be doing that if they wanted to wipe the slate clean.