The First Amendment precludes the FEC from regulating free speech no matter whether they use a "light touch" or not. Congress, pass the Online Freedom of Speech Act, now!
Maybe I'm giving the FEC too much credit for deviousnes, but I half suspect that they publicized the original proposals with the intention of scaling them back so we'd all feel relief and acceptance for regs that are unconstitutional and shouldn't exist. Hence the, "not as bad as we thought" reactions were planned from the get go.