Well, AnimeNewsNetwork (along with AnimeNewsService and Moonphase) finally put up an
article about it, so I suppose that settles the issue of whether it is a hoax or not.
I am still baffled by this rather harsh development. The biggest "crime" I could possibly accuse Yamamoto-san of is that his scene transitions were questionable, but that hardly justifies this public smackdown.
The animation quality has been kept consistent, the punchlines had weight, all in all, Lucky Star is hardly a series that is in trouble (unlike one other Spring2007 series where its own producers are all gloom and doom on their own blogs... "The director has fled! Nobody knows what the story is! Doom~! DOOM~!" (although I must admit, I take perverse glee in their plight
)).
The way they phrased it, if the news services are to be believed, is that Yamamoto-san did not live up to the studio's standards; but Lucky Star is like, his only chance to take helm and learn the ropes in practice. Yamamoto-san is definitely not going to be allowed to touch CLANNAD, SHnY 2nd Season, or FMP!AVDMC, since it would be suicidal to let a green Director take charge of those "golden goose" projects.
So now that his debut project has been taken away from him, what has he been assigned to now? Episode Director?
Cheers.