john, fwiw your story matches what is left of my memory. one nuance
That’s not to say that there wasn’t "IETF politics” involved, but rather that such politics were expressed as enormous pressure to “make a decision”
my take was that cidr had done a lot to relieve the immediate technical pressure for the short term; but there was a deep fear that the industry press was stirring a major poolpah about the end of the internet due to ipv4 exhaustion. i.e. a seriously flawed technical compromise was pushed on us in reaction to a perception of bad press. i have learned that, when i am under great pressure to DO SOMETHING, it's time to step back, go make a cup of tea, and think. the ietf did not. and here we are, a quarter of a century later, still trying to clean up the mess. randy