This feels more like Elliot wouldn't compromise on the concept for the car so had to go. McLaren have shown massive improvement adopting the RB concept so it doesn't leave him with a lot of political capital to keep pushing his preferred concept.
The zero pod was his brainchild and unfortunately it didn’t work. The Red Bull and Ferrari specs do work, arguably the Red Bull spec is the better design but Ferraris has merit and that cars shortcomings may be in areas other than aero design (exploding engines, shit strategy controlling it, etc)