It has nothing to do with amateur radio operators being conservative. The rules were what they were, and amateurs experimented within those rules such as modif

It has nothing to do with amateur radio operators being conservative. The rules were what they were, and amateurs experimented within those rules such as modifying fax modems for use on HF. The FCC set the rules, not a bunch of old farts upset that the morse code test was eliminated. But because the FCC doesn’t pay much attention to the Part 97 service, it has taken them this long to get around to updating the rules. This change was proffered as far back as 2008 at a Dayton TAPR session.