Lots of really cynical replies in here. I understand why but IMO it's a bit unfair.
There is no question in my mind that places like Kickstarter are beholden to the rules of payment processors. Shit, even the marijuana industry is booming like gangbusters, but they still can't accept credit or debit card payments directly (only ATM-at-POS debit) because marijuana remains illegal federally and the payment processors, who handle interstate financial transactions, flatly refuse to cross that line.
So I do believe that their relationship with Stripe was the primary source of friction and the impetus for the new rules.
And the fact is, companies are going to make mistakes sometimes with these types of things. We need to be loud when the mistakes happen, but accepting when they do the right thing in response to blowback. I'm really not sure what more KS could have done, once the rule change has already happened, to make things right. They rolled back the policies, accepted responsibility, and were transparent about why it happened. Other than "never make a mistake, ever" what more could we ask for?
This is exactly the type of apology and transparency I want to see when mistakes are made.
I don't know what they'll do next - hopefully start working on a different payment processor option - but I won't be surprised if it leads to increased platform costs if Stripe is the cheapest option that meets their needs.