> "hey, please don't do this, it's seriously hampering our work in this field"

I don't think that that's really a fair summary of the linked article though. By my reading, I'd say that a quarter of the responses were overall positive on the announcement, a quarter were overall negative, and the rest were mixed/neutral. I agree that there are many mathematicians saying something similar to "please don't do this", but that's not a consensus (or even a plurality) view.

(I agree with your broader point though, that lots of the other replies to this article are way too dismissive of mathematicians' concerns.)