A good warning, based on a reported experience, that this airline will stick to the letter of the law and families must be prepared for the consequences rather than choose another airline option where reported experience may indicate better responsiveness.
On whether it is reasonable to expect more humanity than required by the ToS, I think we can agree to disagree.
I think saying that one should not expect more than the ToS is an opinion, with which I disagree ( I don't disagree that the ToS determines the expectation floor, that's a truism ).
I received much more than the ToS warrants from both BA and LH, during IRROPS, last year... this would obviously shape my relative judgement on EK should the occasion arise. It's a competitive world and perceptions shape choices, quite reasonably, if some companies perform better than ToS compared to others. This is good feedback, for me , from this vantage.