Chris,
I am all 100% with you in your reasoning.
However,
when politics comes in the mix, there is no reasoning.
If the paparazzi community does not build a reputation for being ultra reliable in its practices of safe flying and regulation compliance, no reasoning will help on the day when an idiot crashes into a jetliner in final, The public will all be against "reckless unregulated and wild drone flyers" and the loudness will be deafening.
We are dealing with the news media and the public, not with thinking engineers.
"Trust us, we are reliable people" won't fly.
I understand and feel like many that the rules of operations as defined now are very limiting and do not meet the needs. It is however also true ( just look at the videos posted all over the web), that there is little attempt to adopt safety measures by many flyers. The driving theme is making stunning videos. Each video build on the reputation that drone flyers are a community of wild and unreliable individuals,
We need to change that, before everyone in the world will be watching the news about a jetliner that was hit by a reckless drone flyer .. because that would be actually true .. if it happened. We came close in a few occasions already,
Its just there waiting to happen. It might not have been a paparazzi based model, but that is irrelevant.
That's all I am saying,
The storm on the horizon is very easy to see .. call me paranoid, I can take it.
It wont go away,
Good luck,
Paolo