In my opinion Ford is getting a lot of undeserved flack.

Ford is massively involved in M Sport with a factory spec Rally Cross program, and have been very lojal to M Sport since the factory days. And its not like they dont supply time/effort/money to M Sports rally program.

M Sport (Malcolm Wilson) decided to continue in the WRC whit out full factory backing, and this was a decision he made as part of a very successful business plan, to both sell R5 and R2 (and other) rally cars, and also use it as a HALO project to advertise M Sports engineering capabilities to other motorsport- and non-motorsport clients.

Malcolm Wilson also took a calculated decision to employ Ogier, again with out factory support, and also said that this is a "once in a life time" opportunity. So he didn´t do that deal with the expectation that Ogier would stay on/Ford would come in with full factory backing, all though he probably hoped this would trigger that effect.

If Ford chooses to back M Sport or not, that is off course the question, but I dont see how Ford should suffer any flack for "riding on the back" of M Sport, Ford are in large the reason for M Sport´s existence.

And seeing it from an economical point of view, M Sports economics are much healthier after Fords pull out than before, because they are not that dependant on one client (Ford), or one market (Motorsport).
The same has actually happened to Prodive after Subaru. They are thriving in engineering, composits manufacture, and other things, on top of that they run several successfull motorsport campaigns, and a very good marketing capaign for Subaru.

So all is not bad - even if Ford decides against going full tilt into the WRC.