Honestly, as someone close to the game, it's more of "we can't make the casuals and competitive players happy while catering to collectors all at the same time" and Gavin is using Pauper to test something that has ramifications for the rest of the game.
But here's the catch, Pauper has been incredible this whole time! These bans/unbans are dope! I think this will work and it does set the precedent for the idiot business people that you can manage a format independent of design teams and stockholders.
First time for a "trial unban" where they go back to the ban list if they don't positively impact the format? Yes, this is the first time an official "trial" has occurred in the competitive history of the game. The only time they have come close to this was the original ban of High Tide when paper and online ban lists merged.
I'm not talking about unbans in general and neither is the article.
I concur that unbans are usually a reaction to power creep. However, Modern has always been a mismanaged format since it's inception. The premise of banning the top decks so that Modern was different from "Old Extended" (because Extended at the time became a "Double long Standard" instead of a rotating Type 2 Format) damaged the genesis of the format, which inevitably led to Grixis Twin's dominance. I do think the format back then could've benefitted from Fae/Sculpter/Thopter-Sword/Affinity being legal and providing variance.