"1) Giorgio Maone himself has pointed out repeatedly, including at the thread in question, that anyone can disable his pages' ads with NoScript just by blocking the Google-Syndication scripts. NoScript itself cannot be circumvented in this blocking, even by NoScript. :)"
Except the NoScript site serves ads from other sources than just Google. For example, I count 3 "pop-up on hover" adds from DoClix, Inc. on the "GetIt" page alone. Please note the references to "s3.buysellads.com" as well as a "sponsored links" sections that is not from Google in addition to the doclix.com ads. Not that either side of this point is actually relevant to how inappropriate the action was.
"2) For those who think the updates are a revenue-(ad-viewing)-generator, aside from the fact that the NS FAQ includes simple instructions for turning off the home-page redirect for each update (try reading the FAQ before criticizing)"
Except - as has been pointed out many times - the user has to set this up themselves in about:config, rather than a simple checkbox from the NoScript GUI. Not that either side of this point is actually relevant to how inappropriate the action was.
The fact of the matter is that Giorgio crossed a line, violating user trust and behaved in a manner exactly like malware. Rationalizing the action by saying there was an "an aggressive EasyList campaign against sites sponsoring NoScript development" or that it was an "attack" on the NoScript site, indicates a problem of acceptance of responsibility and does not help - it only compounds the mistake. Giorgio needs to apologize, promise not to do anything like this again in the future and try to regain user trust.