There is nothing wrong with modifying the model to make it look better, printers print differently, end results look different. It would be a benchmark still, as in you obviously can print better, you just need to make necessary modificafions.

Just because the benchy was designed to be used as a calibration tool doesn't mean people shouldn't be able to do whatever they want with it. If a print a benchy with The Rock's face on it I'm not gonna go to their website and be like "omg it looks different why???" Also the model is a solid 3d model, it isn't presliced, so the only thing a manufacturer could do to make a benchy "look better" on their printer would be to make it visibly different than the original, which... See above.

Like I get what you're saying, standardization is important for tools like this, but if someone wants to calibrate their printer it's not like it's difficult to get the original benchy and run your test. If they were just removing models that are nearly identical but with small tweaks I'd be more likely to agree, but they're removing artwork and gag models that could never be mistaken or passed off as the original.

It'd be like banning children's toys that look like tools because someone might try to build a house with a plastic ruler.

Yeah it also doesn't mean the bench is dead or off the market, only that you have to use their model and cannot modify it.