It’s not as if Gunn came from total obscurity when he was chosen by Disney to make the first Guardians.
This situation is very different though as he made these jokes years before he was working for Disney and also the fact that they were jokes.
But Disney is a very conservative company; they abhor controversy. They don’t want anything to even have the hint of impropriety for their family audience.
He got his start working for Troma, and that company is one of the country’s leading providers of tasteless schlock.