This begs the question - if they had Staff promos printed, why did they discontinue them BEFORE distributing these? What was the problem with them, exactly? This looks to me more like a technological/pipeline problem.
My theory is that TCPi really only wanted to put a brief moratorium on Staff promos until the supply chain was normalized and events could start back up.
Before they stopped making the promos, Judges and Organizers like myself were basically at the mercy of the kindness of the LGS to give us the cards. They
technically aren't allowed to sell them, so it
shouldn't matter what other people are selling them for. But while some people got the cards that they were supposed to receive, others didn't. And since one couldn't be sure who was selling what, I guess TCPi said "eff it" and put the brakes on the whole thing.
There's also the supposed "ethics" of judges selling promos that can be connected to this, but that's a loooooooong conversation.