FWIW, I agree with your sentiments regarding GamerGate. However, I'm also curious if it's possible that the nuances of that debacle might not be blatantly clear to the Intel marketing department. In other words: is it possible that this decision was not Intel expressing sympathy with misogynistic assholes and their misguided allies, but rather "wow, this looks like an ugly pile of controversy, let's avoid it entirely"?

I haven't seen the actual content of the mails and "complaints" sent to Intel. Considering the overall approach taken by the GamerGate instigators, I could easily imagine them painting a very different picture from reality.