I must say this is a surprise to me too. I would interpret it to mean 3 reverts of the same material not of three different additions to the same article.
The interpretation you argue for makes removal of nonsense unnecessarily burdensome and risky.
If it is to be interpreted that way it needs to be changed.
Fred
From: Frank v Waveren fvw.wikipediaml@var.cx Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 17:24:17 +0100 To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] me and my three reverts
Both clearly state:
Don't revert any page more than three times within a period of 24 hours.
I don't see how that could be read as anything but "make one revert. Allowed. Make another revert. Allowed. Make another revert. Allow. Make another revert. Not allowed."