To me, it seems clear that he was not a friend. The people, who slaved away for months or years as employees to build the game may have been friends. That would explain the outsized compensation they all got.
However, he was just a contractor found via twitter who wrote a few pages of text for the ending credits.
They really did not think of him as a friend, and when he was done with work they never contacted him again except for legal reasons.
But once again, why the focus on compensation? It's a pretty small section of the article that's after the frustration with Carl.
Once again speculating, but the author didn't want to be treated like "just a contractor", and nor did that seem like how the relationship started out. Even as a contractor, I personally feel Notch could have reached out with happy words at a minimum - instead the author got silence.
Notch probably dealt with tons of temporary contractors during the development of the game. He doesn’t have to keep life time commitments to all of them surely
However, he was just a contractor found via twitter who wrote a few pages of text for the ending credits.
They really did not think of him as a friend, and when he was done with work they never contacted him again except for legal reasons.