Twenty five years of HR Director experience here. Let's see if we can dissect this discussion a bit.
Harvard and Flanders present the classic business defense based on today's profitability requirements. Given Washington's environment and workforce, they did not have much choice in how they reacted. We...I...may not like the reaction, but its clearly the right move for them. And Flanders is right, they handled the punishment in the right way, it would appear.
The actions of companies have really been boiled down to assessment of motive, mainly political motive. Companies use to publically shy away from all things political, but as shared political views replace moral views that has changed.
We more conservative people have to admit, there are "more of the liberal viewpoint in our society; more of the liberal viewpoint in our young and the future." They have financially weaponized complaint. Companies exist to get the most people with increasing amounts of money to spend it with them or consume their product. That means keeping the resources of today and the future in your camp. The human resources, the financial resources.
The only goal is making money. The easiest way to make money is to appeal ro current and future sentiment. It is what it is. You market, your niche, your customer base, determines how you act.
The biggest danger to companies now is in employee complaint as labor shortages rage. Expect more companies to cave to employee complaint.