I guess I am in a third group that feels that the mob-mentality has taken over. If Netflix indeed decides to just go with this, I too will think they should be called out. But unless I've missed something, they haven't communicated anything about that yet, positive or negative. The outrage right now to me looks like people shouting at firefighters "who's going to pay for that waterdamage?!" while the fire is still active (ok, I should be careful with the analogies on HN, you don't need to pedantically tell me all the differences between netflix and firefighters!).
I feel that it's quite likely that they will announce that they will pay back the extra fees, or make it up in some other way. I can appreciate that it was not their first order of business when the request came from the EU (and, as far as I can tell, Australia as well and probably other places).
I agree with you that maybe we should wait to see how this plays out before we judge their actions. I've never had a situation yet where waiting for a more lucid picture was a bad move.
I feel that it's quite likely that they will announce that they will pay back the extra fees, or make it up in some other way. I can appreciate that it was not their first order of business when the request came from the EU (and, as far as I can tell, Australia as well and probably other places).