I'd wager the emote thing and name changes has little to do with the players- well, the whole TBC lizard /spit nonsense did bring attention to it, but these acts are more to placate disgruntled employees and, more importantly, show the law that they're doing something. Empty actions are still actions, and I'm willing to bet a hundred that the legal and HR department are those who demanded those removals, rather than the community management team which is the butt of the joke in most gaming studios. Believe you me, Blizzard takes the lawsuits far more seriously than any amount of whiners on Twitter.
Alongside this issue is that actual, proper policing of player behavior is expensive and tedious. The vast majority of companies would rather take shortcuts on the subject.