Nintendo of America had to do this kinda stuff to market to the family-friendly crowd, seeing as that was (during that time) the biggest market for gaming; while some of these changes don't seem that necessary, c'mon... did they really ruin your experience of the game? So laugh at NoA's old policies all you want, but seeing as how NoA became an American juggernaut, I think their marketing team knew what they were doing better than a 32-year-old pedant who thinks he's tough shit by mocking a company's past policies.
To be fair, however, some of these did give me a good chuckle, especially the CV3 one (“Okay, Konami. If you absolutely must have a cross, please take it down a notch.”)