Some game developers and artists in general are absolutely paranoid delusional about their creations. It's like taking a screenshot will take their soul.

That's true, but in this case in particular Playdead has been struggling to ensure that his artistic vision for video games prevails over the more purely economic vision of his former co-founder (the media was always told that it was a matter of the two not reaching an agreement, but it was always a matter of Playdead not being intimidated by pressure from the producers). I know this because I was doing some research on it a few years ago.