Yuzu as a project never distributed any nintendo binaries for what I know (just info on how to extract binaries), but nintendo's vague nature was purposeful - If they said exactly what Yuzu did wrong, forks and competing projects (Ryujinx etc) would know how to avoid their wrath.

Maybe Nintendo knew about the discord and patreon, maybe not. We wont know what they disclosed (if anything) to pressure the studio into backing down almost immediately after seeking legal counsel, but being an american company making some kind of money from emulation made them easy pickings for Ninty