I guess I'm confused as to why you think they didn't goof this whole thing up. If you take the quote, directly from Disney, they say some talent. And we know that snow and Burnaps character are for sure stand ins. The rest it says just "some" meaning there are real actors for the rest. And conveniently of which there are are seven. In a snow white and the SEVEN dwarfs remake. Then you point to the article saying just zegler and Burnap so those could be any characters, we don't know. Then you say one is snows childhood friend.
So again, why wouldn't if they weren't supposed to be the dwarfs, didn't they just say that when they had the chance? You keep saying everyone is assuming, but when it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. How hard would it have been for Disney to say something like,
"the photo that leaked was not an image of snow white or the seven dwarfs that will be in the film. It's from the production but uses stand ins for Zegler and Burnap and some other actors that do not represent the dwarfs that will be in our film."
All it would have taken was a small statement to clear this entire mess up. But they made a conscious decision to not correct what you are saying is assumed information. I'm sorry, I know you want to defend Disney and this film, but no matter what the truth really is, it was a mistake to not clarify it in my book. And for that they might have killed any chance this film had to be successful.