I think this meta-debate is not doing anything constructive. It's pretty clear that the image is staying deleted at this point. Arguing about who said what to whom isn't going to accomplish anything for us besides toxifying the evironment even further. I think it's time we walked away from this one.
Something I feel have been missed is Sam Korn's original assertion that "[The image deletion] process is demonstrably broken" because this image was not deleted by it. I believe the process is not broken at all, but that Sam's approach to it was wrong. If he had stuck with the 100% demonstrably true facts; 1. the image is not free, 2. there is a free replacement, then I believe the image could have been deleted without much fuss. But when you use emotional arguments ("This image is extremely harmful to Wikipedia..."), expect a filibuster.
-- mvh Björn