Nicholas Knight said:
Unfortunately, instead of compromising, a vote was resorted to, which killed any chance at compromise.
This is an object lesson in why votes should be used rarely if ever to decide things on Wikipedia.
I think this is a mischaracterization. The survey showed the (to my mind) astonishing popularity of the inlining option; it was clear before Jimbo intervened that a consensus to link would build slowly, if at all, in the face of strong (40%+) opposition. Several compromises were being actively considered at the time and in fact one of those compromises is in operation on the article now.