[EliRivers]

Without disagreeing with your argument, your particular example is flawed; on my tour (2012), a number of people declined to bow to the statues and it was fine. It's certainly true that some behaviour is unacceptable, but choosing not to bow to the statues was utterly inconsequential.

[vezzy-fnord]

It seems trivial that the rules would be somewhat relaxed when trying to emanate an image for tourists.

[EliRivers]

Seems trivial to you, maybe, but the OP did say "compulsory even for western visitors".