It’s a vague term so I wasn’t sure what they did but if your goal is less moderation, maybe you assume you don’t need “data engineers”

He seems to disagree with their conclusions based on gut feelings.

Maybe these were the people counting the bots?

This group almost certainly was producing all the metrics that Musk didn't like to look at.

The morale-meter at the company must be negative at this point.

That would be my gut - he felt like they weren't getting the data they needed. If he's doing layoffs/firing that quickly, he's most certainly doing it to make a point to the rest of the company. That's the only reason you would do something like that that fast. Not endorsing it or weighing either way. Just stating the facts.