Sure, but the thing for me is that they could've used the opportunity to distance themselves from the leaks, if they could. They didn't; does that mean they can't? Does that mean they don't need to?
Nothing to gain from it. Until preorders begin, all this results in is speculation. No reason to change their narrative to address an anonymous nobody in some corner of the internet. They didn’t even stray from their marketing and reveal the story when TLOU 2 had leaks that actually affected launch sales. This “leak” is a nothing burger that looks like it took the website verbiage and trailer and made the
entire narrative around it. Has any reveal in naughty dog history lay out how the game begins (Jordan heads to planet’s moon), builds (Jordan lands/crashes on planet and tries to escape) and ends (Jordan leaves planet by learning its secrets)? It’s classic pre-launch misdirection and not remotely the whole picture.
The leak is pretty unimaginative and couldn’t think much beyond what was already officially revealed. And given the hate boner the internet has for ND, making it sound lame is the way to get them clicks. And if people buy into it, that’s perfect, because that’s what ND would want you to think so they can subvert your expectations during the marketing cycles, previews, reviews or when you finally play the game.
I might be completely wrong about all this as I’m speculating as well and certainly don’t want to come across as a defense force for ND. But the leak seems way too obvious to actually be real.