Similar reports about Malaysia Airlines (as an example) don’t seem to have an impact. There were a whole suite of articles on television about alleged sexual assault by a steward on an MH flight. Did everyone stop flying?
I'd suggest Malaysia Airlines repuation already was at rockbottom, after losing 2 aircraft with no survivors in just over four months. Many people had already stopped flying, and continue to boycott MH, as a result of these incidents. Further issues that might impact other carrier's repuations probably have marginal impact. Yet Emirates tends to be held in much higher esteem.
Sort of like hearing of another sexual assault allegation against Harvey Weinstein, Rolf Harris or Kevin Spacey, what reputation they had is long since gone, one more allegation will make no difference. Yet if similar allegations were made against {Enter name of random male celebrity who has had no accusations} the outcome on that person's reputation would be significant.
Although I agree with the thrust of what you are saying, even if the issue of the OP (in isolation) had a repuational impact via an ACA story , whether this would actually translate to a noticeable commercial impact is highly unlikely.