Cheating on your wife may be despicable behavior, but it doesn’t warrant firing the founding CEO of one of the most important companies on earth, especially considering how much is at stake economically, including how reliant the U.S. economy has been on AI build out spending. On the other hand, cheating on your wife and endangering national security at the same time is a different story.

If the company still marches forward just the same, just as successfully, would it have mattered that they fired him?

It does actually. Consequences are consequences. not firing him just for the 2nd would have made a mockery of their policies.