I feel that the reason is that some people couldn’t discuss religion without feeling victimized, feeling insulted, or without insulting, attacking or degrading people.
I miss the underlying discussions though, since they did touch on things that were / are interesting. More interesting that the samples posted by the OP.
In short… We did’t just douse flame wars… with these flame wars we lost something else as well… substance. I miss that as well, nowadays.
With this new policy, we may have thrown out the child, together with the filthy water of its bathtub. (Dutchism!!!)