The main reason to do it is the same reason as 2013: it's preferable for people to write into op_return outputs than into unspendable payment outputs. Dropping the limit makes OP_RETURN a reliable replacement for the latter which is currently standard and essentially unpreventable.

Data in OP_RETURN is significantly more expensive than data in inscriptions, so I have a hard time understanding the concern that the overall block space occupied by data transactions would increase.

Whether more should have been done about inscriptions seems like a separate debate that mostly muddies the water here.