This doesn't seem quite correct to me. They weren't asking for "more validation than was reasonable". They were asking for literally any proof that users would

This doesn't seem quite correct to me. They weren't asking for "more validation than was reasonable". They were asking for literally any proof that users would benefit from the proposal. That seems like an entirely reasonable thing to ask before changing the way every single NPM package gets published, ever. I do agree that 10k/week is non-negligible. Perhaps that means the people responsible for the 10k weren't in the room?