You described the company, pre-consultants, as "super toxic". Slashing staff, while it's uncomfortable, is likely the only way to save the company. And, as you said, the layoffs included the CEO and other "assholes", so it wasn't isolated to low-level people.
The company had literally about a hundred million dollars in the bank and were bringing in millions every month on a strong upward trajectory. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations had the total cost of staff monthly salaries at $500,000 - $750,000. That's now been slashed to about $300,000 - $550,000.
