I fail to see how following normal safety protocol of proceeding at 40km/h would have been indefensible or unreasonable? They are the rules of operation for this scenario and exist for the exact reason we are reading this story. I can’t think of anything more defensible than “I am not going to break safety rules”

Never would a pilot be reprimanded for refusing an ATC order to move their plane in a way that violates established protocols

I don't know, because there is no actual proper safety report yet. That certainly sounds reasonable, but obviously the dispatchers though otherwise. Likely because they did not actually understood that there was a problem, but that it's just that annoying bug again.