An echo does not make a crowd.
I have lurked on this list for years. I am replying from a personal email address because my views are my own.
There has been an echo chamber of a relatively few people on the list complaining about the changes. This seems to be far from a consensus. Instead it is a small group that keeps bouncing the same things back and forth without being willing to compromise at all. Either Paul does what you demand or else off with his head!
Should they have had more discussion before they were applied? Probably
As I understand it, some of the historical data was combined because TZDB was never intended to be a source to map location to timezone. This also removed some names that some might find objectionable, and slimmed down the size of the default data when compiled.
There are compile options to still include it. Those compile options need some work to meet the needs of everybody. Instead of throwing a tantrum, how about submitting patches for Paul to review to improve the compile option? If you spent half the effort doing that as you do trying to foment a coup d'état, the compile option might be a solution already. That is what I meant by compromise.