Wow, that is actually the first time I hear someone use democracy and corporation unironically together...
In a semse board memebers have even less protection than rank and file. So no, nothing special happening at OpenAI other than a founder CEO being squezzed out, not the first nor the last one. And personal feeling never factored into that kind of decision.
Ha, true. Well, I did say "democratic governance", not "democracy" itself.
Substitute "rules of order" or "parliamentary procedure" if you like. At the end of the day, it's majority vote by a tiny number of representatives. Whether political or corporate.
Is that news to you? Corporate governance is structure pretty much the same as parliamental democracies. The C-suite is the cabinet, the board of directors is the parliament/house of representatives and the shareholders are the public/voters.
The same way there's a big difference between firing a government employee and expulsion of a member of Congress.