Exactly. This whole episode reeks of unprofessionalism. Even if the author were in the wrong, he deserves a better reply than being told he's worthless.
I deliberately chose not to work in the "enterprise" market with 6-digit contracts anymore and instead sell a consumer product to many more people so that I could fire any customer that annoyed me without thinking twice about it. They get their money back and can find someone else to annoy.
I really don't see what's so outrageous about the practice. There is no moral law that being paid by someone somehow creates a hierarchy where people can waste your time.
Edit, because you seem to have edited your comment: That doesn't happen for a single, innocuous, \question, obviously. Reading between the line and in this thread, OP submitted 30(!) proposals for talks, sent follow-ups on each of them, plus other questions. At some point someone /probably/ got annoyed. I'd even wager money he's a running joke among the organizers.
the key factor is whether they ever _told_ him "hey, you're spamming the conference at this point, please tone it down." - otherwise it's just passive-aggressive. Would you simply close a client's account and refund them without ever telling them that you were considering such actions? Because that would be extremely unprofessional.
> At some point someone /probably/ got annoyed. I'd even wager money he's a running joke among the organizers.
That's fine, these things can happen. But being an a-hole about it is not. Just say it in clear text: "You came off as needy and annoying, please stop". Would probably be more than enough.
But the organizers probably didn't want their decision to be questioned or brought into a public light so they went silent and ignoring.