Some Admin finally...
Well that doesn't make it more official than any answers of some moderator but I will believe that  this thumbnail decision and the TOS were done with only the best intentions in mind.

If these were the motivations then it's fine. Not that I think the whole result will be good only because the intentions are. I no way. It's only good to know what the intentions are.

Besides the erudite "babbling" about economics and the sophisms of Karen this one made me laugh tho:

I can assure you that I am not in the least bit "naive"....

Reminded me of someone I know who said this pretty often and with some variations.
It's an embedded systems engineer. And now this "least bit" together with "Site Admin" brought up some memories... "well, even with the best ECC there will be BSOD's..."

No insult intended...
Actually I like pugnacious admins. Tempts me to flame all day long. :p

Maybe the reason for these discussions was that the intention appeared implausible after the short explanation in that Front Page article.
Most companies tell so many things for why they did something while soon after it becomes obvious what the true intentions were. The reaction is only based on some sort of traumatization, so to say.

The naive part could be to believe that everybody put so much faith into some words of some stranger that he accepts them as a truth.