I think I must disagree.

Yes, I understand the former editor's opinion, though I do not share it. And of course she has a right to express that opinion.

But literary journals occupy a special place in the creative world. They have a responsibility to encourage creative writers. So for a poetry editor to post a public statement that denies that poets or their work really matters to non-poets or affects society--that does sound like a betrayal of her role and of the journal she represented.

One might reasonably disagree with the publisher's decision, or suggest it was an overreaction, but one can hardly argue that they didn't have the right to take that action, or that they had no reason to consider doing so.