I think the simplest answer is the correct answer. Growing up in the organization in the 1980s I recall countless articles published by the WBTS lambasting the Catholic Church for its pedophile problems. Move forward a few decades and now Jehovah's Witnesses are being lumped into the group of religious pedophile protectors/deniers.
Jehovah's Witnesses have been preaching and publishing they are the one true religion from day one. Since the days of Rutherford they have adopted dogma and policy to unnecessarily draw lines in the sand so they can be different than everyone else.
With the public notoriety of JWs being pedophile protectors/deniers they have made themselves worse than the Catholic Church. At least the Catholic Church no longer denies they have a problem. This increases the size of the embarrassing stain on the proverbial shirt of JWs.
The non-answer given by the WBTS of "We hate pedophiles" isn't a confession. They refuse to admit the problem and continue to use their membership donations as hush money to the victims. The organization isn't hiding anything. They have been exposed. Its like playing hide-and-go seek and a person who has been found replies "No you haven't."