It is an interesting time for AEW as we head into 2024, as only one member of The E in AEW, The Elite, is an active member of the roster: Kota Ibushi. "Hangman" Adam Page was attacked by the mysterious devils that have been roaming around AEW as of late and is off television selling his injury....
TL;DR: Dana has been harboring some resentment over the way the Bucks were treated after Brawl Out. While The Elite themselves have decided to let bygones be bygones, she was never that happy with the situation.
Morffi, OTOH, simply had a better offer elsewhere.
Chances are even if she was upset by the fallout from brawl out it has little to do with why she left. I have seen people leave jobs for similar reasons in the past so maybe.
I wonder who's saying AEW tried to keep her given her lack of experience. At this point I would think AEW would be wanting someone with more experience.
Is she really that inexperienced? In terms of pro-wrestling merchandise pre AEW she was running probably the biggest game outside of WWE, and maybe NJPW.
Dana Massie was making 7 figures a year with AEW. Some AEW talent were not happy with merchandise. There was a Sting snow globe that went out, I think they had to cancel it from their orders that they didn’t even want anyone to have it on their mantel.
I dunno that the mouthpiece of Punk is necessarily a reliable source on what Dana Massie was making, but even if accurate, given the wins AEW had merch wise on the retail side of things it might not be a surprise. Apart from the snow globe that never actually shipped, most of the complaints about merch are more around not having enough at live events; and that's a factor of the partnership with PWT as much as anything.