When I'm looking for my next thing to do, I don't really want a blog post out there that says you fired me.
I get that ambiguous, passive language may allow the CEO or whatever to view themselves in their own choice of lighting, and there's a desire to see them much more uncomfortable because of just how unfortunate the reality of losing your job is for the people on the other side.
But it also allows "those impacted" to tell their perspective.
“Seventeen of our teammates were laid off today” still suffers from the passive voice, but is much more up-front.
(Plus, presumably many other teammates will be impacted to one degree or another by the departure of these 17.)