I think there is something to all of this. If you winter (or summer for that matter) in Aspen, and head out to the Hamptons for the oh-so-trendy parties, and your friends are of similar persuasion, there is definitely a sense of wanting to be ultraPC for business reasons, for social reasons, for networking reasons etc.
Yet I still would not want to exclude some heavy handed pressure being applied by someone with real authority as so many companies bailed and so quickly. To me it smells like a shakedown, although I agree with you that the things you mentioned play a role as well.
Oh, I do not doubt for a moment Axlerod and co. used a few companies as a canary in the coalmine and ‘encouraged them to play along...promised them backup if it failed and now says ‘Hey, you did it not us” and threatens them with audits if they squeal.
Not for a NONOsecond do I doubt the possibility, even the PROBability. But CorpCulture is SO PC these days that I can just as easily see this, due to their PC indoctrination as a “We’ll be heros!” moment and thinking it would give them a leg up on the competition.
Either way, or both, they haZ a truck full of fail to show for it and the fallout IS damaging the whole “PC/Lib” thing well beyond anything they ever imagined.
And like the Cheezeburger cat, I haZ a happy ;)