alt Hacker NewsI don't think the author has overreacted, but your first paragraph doesn't seem to match the timeline, so maybe the article didn't portray it correctly. For a better understanding have a look at the Github issue: https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/issues/197
It was not an automated review, it was a manual review, poorly done. The author then explains that they don't want to deal with the stress (there are also some extra explanations of what's involved in the AMO review process), and also that they left a somewhat harmful version of the plugin up. Not wanting to deal with stress is a perfectly understandable reaction.
Sometimes, people apparently forget how much of this ecosystem is built on volunteers: their time and their talent.
You can lose a volunteer army fast if you don't provide them the warm fuzzies of the experience they don't get working with a faceless corporation.