William,
I am saying that going forward you have eliminated WMF's ability to use a tertiary tool that you agree was helpful.
I can't say, that we entirely eliminated it - we transform it a bit, I guess.
Having spent a lot of time dealing with abuse early in the Web's history, I wouldn't have done it that way. But it's not really my problem and you don't appear to be looking for input, so godspeed.
Oh, I'm observing all the input.
The decision made wasn't entirely "oh we must do it", and of course, there could be other courses of action taken, like cherry-picking IPs to ban, or combine subnet-wide bans with URL-based restrictions.
All of that needs work, and if WMF is willing to spend resources on implementing such restrictions, it can sure work on it - none of my choices are binding, all I do is usually to keep the site up in good shape, without wasting too much money ;-)
Domas