Users feel increasingly insecure.
The CoC changes are, all things considered, a tiny change in natural speech most users would accomodate without even thinking, but the general context in which all of this happened (advertisement, Monica case, and other things that I won't recall) caused us to think the rules could be enforced in an unreasonable manner.
Users feel insecure about being trolled and/or banned for writing as they normally speak.
Nothing could be done by SE inc in a climate where they aren't trusted to be of good faith. ReinstauringRestoring trust was a primary requirement.