> They were quietly, politely protesting, but protesting

How? Researchers handing out a journal from the conference organizer’s own journal is now protesting and banned at conferences?

The “protestors” include the editor of the journal. They knew what the rules were and they followed them. If Conference A gets to yank research because a non-science MBA at the journal thinks it could hurt their stock price, and Conference B doesn’t allow that, which conference do you think will do more important work?