I think a closer analogy would be a vending machine owner saying you can't use the machine if you curse at it.

If you mean banning punching a vending machine and stating the reason for the ban is the vending machine is alive and suffering, then yes.

There is no damage for cursing at the model, other than to your wallet for the tokens you burned. But there could be some entertainment value, though it tells something about a person who is using abusive language for entertainment. There could also be research value where the user might want to throw the model off to reach their goals, whatever there might be.

I partly understand what dirty game Anthropic is playing but I hope it will turn back against them sooner rather than later.