"However, I hope they can sympathize with the West and see, per this discussion, how the necessity arises."
You Latins care way too much about what your disobedient and obstinate children think! You know what Aquinas is trying to explain and why. So do we. You think to explain The Mystery is important; we don't. "Protestants" often deny the Objective Truth of the Eucharist. We don't care, really, what they believe as long as they leave us and ours alone with our beliefs.
Perhaps. But, what would a Greek say to an obedient and not obstinate child who asked: "But it still tastes like wine"?
For example, the Trinity is fundamentally incomprehensible. All we know is "unless we say THIS" or "if we permit ourselves to say THAT" we will miss the mystery and say something not only not true but confusing.
I don't think Thomas explains the Eucharist, I think he sets out the ground rules and, maybe more importantly, says what we DON'T say it is."
If the objecting child referred to downstream is old enough, we say,"Yes, it tastes exactly like wine (only sweeter - we also tend to go with sweeter wines), but what it tastes like is not what it is, any more than being stabbed by a needle is an attack, when it's a vaccination. It FEELS like torture. It isn't."
Then you smack him a good one. No. Wait.