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Amazon has no legal standing to stop people from lending books that were bought with the lending feature, whether such loans are to friends, strangers or anyone at all. All it can do is make it slightly--and I do mean slightly--more difficult for people to access authenticated information about the book offered for lending.
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Which is all Amazon did to Lendle.
Amazon didn't shut Lendle down...
Lendle shut Lendle down -- because they foolishly built their infrastructure on a rug (a non-essential rug, I might add) that Amazon was free to pull out from under them any time they wanted to.
The Product Advertising API was never necessary for what Lendle wanted to do. They just made the mistake of putting too much emphasis on bells, whistles and shiny-flashy baubles. B&N has no API and as such, lending networks based on their lending feature will never be affected in the same manner.
Build a better (smarter) mousetrap and Lendle will be right back in business... even if I wish they weren't.
Whichever side of the piracy argument you fall on; the fact remains that Amazon didn't shut down
anyone's ability to operate and maintain a perfectly-legal, functioning lending website. As you said... they'd have no legal standing to do so.