There were laws in place that protected you from being evicted if you couldn't pay your rent. You could have stayed if you really wanted to.

They liked their landlord; maybe they didn't want to (effectively) steal tens of thousands of dollars from him.

Those laws did not happen immediately, nor was it clear what would happen if they did not pay their rent. Skilesare made the sensible move by presuming they would have a ton of unaffordable debt if they had stayed and ended up with a bill for all of the unpaid rent.

However, as US governments are prone to do, the decision is made to punish those who were prudent and made sacrifices, and to assist those who took risks. Which might be okay if the government was giving the cash to everyone, as that would not punish those who made sacrifices.