It is strange that this became a thing that everybody is willing to make a stand on.
I think it comes down to each side feeling there is a threat to an essential aspect of bitcoin: the BIP 110 side sees spam as a threat to node runners, the Core side sees overly strong spam mitigation efforts as a threat to Bitcoin's incentive structure (hmm, that isn't quite right when I say it: what I mean is Bitcoin's" game theory" but that phrase gets used so widely as to be almost without meaning).
It is strange that this became a thing that everybody is willing to make a stand on.
I think it comes down to each side feeling there is a threat to an essential aspect of bitcoin: the BIP 110 side sees spam as a threat to node runners, the Core side sees overly strong spam mitigation efforts as a threat to Bitcoin's incentive structure (hmm, that isn't quite right when I say it: what I mean is Bitcoin's" game theory" but that phrase gets used so widely as to be almost without meaning).