Agree with 90%.
A sane policy will make sense. And, they did the best they could at the time. As with a lot of things, what was expedient then has had consequences.
"Thinning", logging by another name, would not have solved those problems, and would probably have left more dead and dry material on the ground.
And, the report you ridiculed was based upon the information available at the time. The author of the "Opinion" citation was being silly to try to discredit the Sierra Club based upon subsequent information.
Arf