First off, it's implied in Torben's post that the reason he wants a respec is because of those patches. Whereas in the sentence "Respec on player X please," there is no reason, implied or stated.
Giving a reason for a respec is a minuscule amount of work, I don't see why doing so is an issue. Think of this like a scholarship, like the many ones that I failed to get. They don't give them out willy-nilly, you instead have to actually provide reasons why you should get it.
Man, giving things out for free sure is greedy.