It was designed to avoid a fix that would prevent the use of asicboost.
You're goalpost of a zero or near zero value is bad. Even fake art can be sold.
I have kind of mixed feelings about removing ASIC boost. I do feel it is everyones right to innovate and get an advantage, then patent that advantage. It takes money to do that R&D, so it should be protected. Others can do so as well, or operate from countries where these patents are not respected. On the other hand, others have so far been unable to get their own advantages, so maybe it is time to hardfork (yes, hardfork, SegWit does not fix it, not until > 90% of transactions are using SegWit) to prevent getting this advantage.
Also, I'm happy to pay a (reasonable) fee to miners to compensate them for the resources they spend in keeping the network secure for me.