Wait, "lurkers support me in email" (the quote) was already old 15 years ago? Where is it from?

Anyway, I think I disagree with a major theme of your post, namely that this is all such old hat. I have actually read posts by a number of pretty prominent (and less so) authors saying that this has been a real eye-opener and they have changed their policies after many years. It was the same with RaceFail09 - old as the hills, but different. Repetition with a difference the deconstructionists say :)