Ferrari are damned by some no matter what they do or not do.
A certain British driver is praised by some no matter what he does or does not do, as British drivers always tend to.
The fault in the presented logic is that the certain British driver and his team are being praised in this case for the exact same reason Ferrari is being damned:
If Ferrari should have issued team orders to allow their 2nd placed driver (who is not challenging for the WDC) overtake their 1st placed driver (who is leading the WDC but looks far from certain of having it comfortably in the bag),
at the same time when Merc's 'equally treated' drivers (who both challenge for the WDC, admittedly with the British one seemingly in with a better chance),
shouldn't one expect that Merc
should have avoided issuing the order for the first swap, choosing to favour their 'equally treated' Finnish driver by giving him more opportunities to overtake his fellow compatriot, or capitalise on a mistake?
In hindsight, Ferrari were proven right, as their intended plan worked out since neither Merc was able to overtake Kimi
And Merc were proven wrong, since the British God was equally unable to overtake Kimi as the Finnish 'not number 2 driver'
Gap times mean little in a track where overtaking is so hard unless you are Alonso or have a 3 sec/lap advantage, Bottas might have as well thought to keep a safe distance and save his tires in the chance 2 of the 3 leaders crashed into each other the way the Red Bulls did
Or simply knew very well that since he couldn't overtake, the other car would not be able to either...
To view this the other way around, had Vettel allowed Kimi to pass in the lead, but managed to keep the Mercs behind until the last corner, would all you guys now crying foul have expected Kimi to give the 1st place back and then praise him and Ferrari for their sportsmanship?
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. H.P.Lovecraft