If we put on our cynical hat for a second, they aren't targeting these books because anyone cares about them. The point is to assert that the woke mob have power over Amazon, a powerful company.
Folding to their demands won't do anything useful, the nebulous 'woke' will make progressively more demands. If they can choose what Amazon does and doesn't sell, why stop at books nobody cares about? Keep going until actual resistance is met!
Was this particular instance in response to a woke mob? The article doesn't mention it. I see it as just as likely to have been initiated by a woke Amazon employee. Although the woke are probably a minority of Amazon employees, they are likely a vocal and organized minority, enough to make the rest scared to try to make a policy that would stop this kind of action.
That is a possible explanation, a tax to be left alone. A protection racket of sorts.
The thing is, classical mob that collects "pizzo" money is vertically structured and can actually promise the payer real safety in exchange for money paid. That is not the case of the Twitter mob, anyone can start a shitstorm against anyone else.
Folding to their demands won't do anything useful, the nebulous 'woke' will make progressively more demands. If they can choose what Amazon does and doesn't sell, why stop at books nobody cares about? Keep going until actual resistance is met!