There is something to this. Festering anger over how the Patriots behave like a NASCAR crew chief in search of 2 additional horsepower is part of what drove this process.
If they had a plan to deal with these types of incidents that did not involve backing themselves into corners, they might have tamed Belichick long before this.
But I am not sure the football inflation is worth the battle. If those fumble statistics had held up, then we are talking about a season long advantage (at home at least). But since those numbers have been largely debunked, I am not sure this was the hill to die on.