Sure they can write laws making it illegal to claim the king of Thailand is a doddering old fool anywhere in the world. Good for them.
They have no legal right to enforce it on me, though. If I visit their country, of course, I will be subject to their laws. But they can't apply it to me until then.
I suspect that the reaction to the edited video spooked them. They were expecting to get away with that, and when it was so easily called pot as a fraud, they had to reconsider.
An interesting analyses. It certainly matches what we've seen. His attacks on the standard list of people is moderately pathetic, and quite predictable.
Context is important to the message, yes. But if I need the context to understand a particular word, I would understand the message just as well without that word.
One reason might be shipping. A car probably takes up the same space in a shipping container as four cars worth of steel.
I don't know where the break even point is. But it's likely to be more complex than you describe.