The King has made it very clear that he was entirely unhappy with Andrew's involvement for years, but had Andrew done the right thing and entirely disappeared from public life he might have retained a degree of protection.
He didn't and so he had everything stripped away which sent a very clear message to Government and the police that he was there for the taking.
The 'firm' protects itself ruthlessly. Andrew was too exposed in a too public scandal, they had not alternative but to cut him loose to protect themselves and the monarchy. Governor of the Bahamas was not an option...
"the firm" protects the people realistically in the line of succession. There's a reason harry lives in America these days.
Yes, that's what protecting itself means. In this case things have become so public that the best/least bad option to protect the King and the Prince of Wales is to sacrifice Andrew.
I'm not so positive that's the case. It's fairly well reported that Andrew and Charles have not seen eye to eye for...many decades. Charles kept the peace probably for his mother's sake while she was alive, but even before the major epstein revelations, Charles had been pushing Andrew to the side