What was Haydn protesting in his "Farewell" symphony?

Haydn composed #45 with the intent to get his musicians at Esterhaza some much-deserved time-off to be with their wives. The "protest" would come in the symphony's finale, where the players would blow out their candles and leave, one at a time, until there were just two violinists left playing at the very end, Haydn and his first chair, Luigi Tomasini.