I didn't realize this was a Moderator issue...if it makes the moderators' lives easier, I can support such a policy in principle because they do give an awful lot to make this a good community...but I have found links (affiliate or not) to be helpful in steering me to good books to read, so IMO, affiliate links do have value.
Smart affiliate posters would do something like "Affiliate -- (title)/subject -- Smashwords" or whatever to show subject and format.
The problem with the new threads as I've seen then so far is that you have no idea if a thread is worth clicking or skipping over.
I'm confused about the reporting issue mentioned earlier. Was this a case of affiliate-linkers were turning on (reporting) each other, "He/she poached/duplicated my link" and dragging the Mods into an argument? Kind of like cuttle-fish (Pirates of the Caribbean 3 reference
)