I went back and looked at your first post, and I saw this:
When assessing content, why does it matter if they actually play the game, rather than just watch the game?
Well, if you would have preferred that they "stick to their guns" over the hot coffee mod, we could just as easily have regulation coming in via the government, rather than advisement by the ESRB. It's a pretty simple solution as far as I'm concerned....don't leave naked skins or sexual content on the CD. The ESRB's decision to change the rating of GTA: San Andreas made it painfully obvious what their stance is on any content placed on the CD. IMO Bethesda dropped the ball on this one.
Something people might like to read over.
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp
And no, he doesn't take things an itsy bitsy bit too far. When you start having multiple culture determine what is or is not okay in a video game, you'll end up getting nothing done because they won't be able to agree.
For instance, the American in the group would have no problems showing a swastika in a WW2 game, whereas the German will be outright saying "banned!" So what rating do we put on that game?