I'm not sure exactly when Zack started rippaposting, but it was probably at least a year after the porn video surfaced here, which was the very end of December 2022.
Zack was still praising the "high bar" Eric July set as late as September of 2023:
View attachment 8703242
I'm all about theory posting and the Zack porn reveal had my mind going in a lot of directions. Initially, I suspected a Doug Ernst gayop but your guess is absolutely valid. Ethan admitted he and others knew about it (and has intimated that there's more) but blamed the "leak" on some shadowy cabal that may very well have been the CG inner circlejerk itself. I find it highly sus that Zack would heel turn on Rippa and start dedicating much of his content to parroting Ethan's own criticisms of Eric July out of nowhere.