It is. The EXACT same thing.
They are joining the ranks of Luther in protesting the direction the church is going, just as he did in his day.
“I’d like to hear how rejecting the current duly elected Pope of Rome, Pope Francis, isn’t also “protesting”!”
There is already a term for that in history. It is called “The Counter-Reformation”
See:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04437a.htm
One huge difference is that Luther rejects the whole concept of the papacy.
True Catholics reject presumed heretics popularly known as “popes” of current and recent memory. That is because they the false popes who have gained so much popularity began to fashion false Catholicism to look like something that Luther be more inclined to approve of, and in so doing committed heresy. (Read about “Vatican II” at http://novusordowatch.org/start-here/.)
The papacy is protected from heretics and if a man commits heresy in his teaching it is a sure sign that he is not the pope, regardless of appearing to be “duly elected”.
Catholic theologians and valid popes have proclaimed and upheld this teaching.