If it was just about a simple count the host could just `wc -l access.log`. Clearly website hosts are not satisfied with that, and so they ignore DO_NOT_TRACK and disrespectfully try to circumvent privacy extensions.
That doesn't really work because huge amount of traffic is from 1) bots, 2) prefetches and other things that shouldn't be counted, 3) the same person loading the page 5 times, visiting every page on the site, etc. In short, these numbers will be wildly wrong (and in my experience "how wrong" can also differ quite a bit per site and over time, depending on factors that are not very obvious).
What people want is a simple break-down of useful things like which entry pages are used, where people came from (as in: "did my post get on the frontpage of HN?")
I don't see how anyone's privacy or anything is violated with that. You can object to that of course. You can also object to people wearing a red shirt or a baseball cap. At some point objections become unreasonable.
Why aren't people starting their protest against the website they're currently using instead of at OP.
You're upset that OP used an image or javascript instead of grepping `access.log` makes absolute no sense. The same data is shown there.
One difference is intent. When you build an analytics system you have an obligation to let people opt out. Access logs serve many legitimate purposes, and yes, they can also be used to track people, but that is not why access logs exist. This difference is also reflected in law. Using access logs for security purposes is always allowed but using that same data for marketing purposes may require an opt-in or disclosure.
Tons of very simple hosts, like Github Pages, don't give access to detailed info like that (and that's totally fine).