The funny thing about this is that it isn't even good advice in the chest-puffing status-seeking model in which its proposed, because a big controversy with a former founder might mostly just makes you someone reasonable people might not want to work with.
If there's a pattern it's one thing. But for a single event when it's hard for an outsider to figure out who was in the right and who was in the wrong, it's probably easier just to avoid both of them.
I'm 100% avoiding on principle ever working with a founder who ruthlessly terminated a partner in month 11 of a cliff without simply accelerating the cliff, so there's not much need to litigate that point.
