This was the only way this could ever play out. After all of Boeing’s last five years, even if 100% unrelated, no bureaucrat anywhere would take that risk. If something goes wrong, you’re the idiot who put the astronauts on a vehicle from a company who has had a long string of recent failures.
Even at the best of times space travel is risky, why tie your career to that?
Not only would you be the bureaucrat who put astronauts on a vehicle with documented problems, you would have done so when a perfectly capable alternative was sitting there able to help.
Even at the best of times space travel is risky, why tie your career to that?