Because sales are down, they're in panic mode

My impression as well. It's a combination of panic mode because freebies are way down, sales are way down, and the virus scare after the son of one of the admins recently got one from either a forum freebie link or an off-site freestuff link.

You know, it really says something that nearly all of the comments from vendors about this policy on these forums has been overwhelmingly, extremely negative. You would think this would be a hint to TPtB and the admins here. You don't piss off your vendors, not if you want to survive as a business. P3D-Art and 3-DArena are not small time vendors, either, and both Wolfie and SWAM are on Rendo's top vendors list! Kristi, Hope, and all other Rendo admins (And TPtB), this should be the moment of truth for the admins and TPtB. The faster that this is realized and the rule reversed, the less damage you will cause to the site in the long run. Do not wait for 2-3 weeks like you usually do with disastrous decisions like these, because by then it will be too late, just as it was when you removed the destructive gallery limitations initiated during last summer's redesign.