We’re not discussing exploitative porn or handing out guns and drugs here, this is a platform for distributing art.
I don’t want the Australian Government censoring things, or deciding who can and cannot view art and in what circumstances.
I want them making guidelines about labelling, so that citizens can make informed decisions about what they and their children view.

Discussing the particular method that Valve should implement this farce is talking past the point as far as I’m concerned.

because I actually think they’re being intentionally belligerent

Yeah, this screams malicious compliance.
They’re waiting to see if the Australian government will blink.

Who are these people that think that the general user WANTS this.

Gee, I wish I had reduced control over my own system.

This is great.
The unused code is (now) no longer an attack surface.
If Kicinski is wrong, someone needs to take ownership of the module and it gets re-added.
Win-Win.