Enough

> In this particular case, I might be being generous (but I might not, either) the people who said it was going to continue may have been the distro management repeating what they were told. Then all of a sudden someone else pulls the plug. I've had projects cancelled under me that's come as a complete surprise. It would not be in the least surprising if that's what's happened here.

Like you, I've experienced this phenomena, and I consider it to be the most likely explanation. Outside of the C-suite, SVPs, and HR, this would have been strictly need-to-know, enforced with additional NDAs containing financially ruinous penalties if broken (and terminated on the spot if the recipient refused to sign) [1]. Indeed, the Clear Linux folks (including its management) probably only found out about this when they were handed their own pink slips and escorted off-site by security. [2] That "turning out the lights" announcement was probably the CL's manager's final act as an Intel employee.

[1] This happened to my manager at $dayjob-1 a few days before they publicly announced they were shutting down our entire site and moving all operations to India. He came down with a "sudden illness" instead of having to lie to our faces before the announcement.
[2] Metaphorically. Probably.