I'm glad to hear someone agrees with me! :D (And, aha, I argued rather angrily about the teaching of high school math the first time I met the math teacher who is now my cousin's wife. Yet somehow we still get along!)

it was to protect foreigners from Japanese people prejudging them by their manner of speaking when they're beginning their language study

I can understand that, although it still seems bizarre to me to ignore dictionary form entirely. (And regarding my high school classmates, I doubt many of them ever used Japanese outside of the classroom, although realizing that actually makes me kind of sad.)

a multi-page essay, but maybe I'll translate it

For what it's worth, I would read it! :D