With the above statement by Mr. Tron and me being extremely literal,
is Mr. Tron lying, or does he really feel that way?

Maybe he really does feel robbed. He bought controlling stake in the franchise and the big players left for another ball field.

Or is this a much bigger thing?
Block-one, the supporting cast, lived on a boat for months to avoid child rape charges.
And so, this cast started a couple things including STEEM.
Was it always that they intended to control the free-press aspect of blockchain via the first mover aspect?
This conspiracy theory makes more sense than what Mr. Tron wrote above.

Well, what Mr. Tron wrote above make a whole lot more sense if you include that he was supposed to bring the hammer down and control the free-press and has failed in his task.