Since there is always some sucker to be found on Reddit who enjoys taking orders and licking boots, no sub can really defend against this move by Reddit admins. Which is probably why some other mods decided to maliciously comply instead.

Yeah, pretty much. To not reopen you have to have absolute confidence that no one on the mod team will succumb to the temptation to steal ownership of the sub. The fact that some subs have fallen prey to this (like /r/piracy) is why mods have been wringing their hands and reopening subs left and right.

Honestly this shit is early IRC drama all over again; kick all the other ops from the channel and it belongs to you, provided those people aren't registered in the ChanServ. /u/spez is the ChanServ, and he's letting everyone know he's willing to look the other way.