The hole in the theory that not buying UP hurts the hobby is that most of will simply buy some other road name or an undecorated model. When I decide I need x-number of box cars, I am going to buy x-number of box cars. What is at issue is simply whether or not any are decorated with UP. Yes, if enough people do that, the manufacturer will drop the UP decorated box cars from the product line. But if next to nobody is buying them, that’s fine and well, too. Supply and demand takes over in its rawest form.
As far as protecting their trademark, they can do that with licensing agreements but without fees-simply reserving the right to review the proposed model for authenticity (or not). I would suspect they would object to a UP hopper with the some obsenity printed in graffiti next to the logo. Otherwise, they would probably care less, as long as the trademark is not being used by a competitor, in a derogatory fashion, or in an effort to confuse someone else’s interest as theirs.
Advertising it is not, unless maybe a large club is modeling UP somewhere visible. What it is, however, is public relations, albeit in a small platform.
In short, when a company goes down a path that I find it objectionable, I voice that objection with my dollars. You can voice your approval or disapproval any civilized way you choose, including doing absolutely nothing. We all make our decisions.
The only noticeable difference to me is that I will have more freight cars carrying the livery of someone other than UP. Some of those will wind up in Bunter Ridge livery, which, unless the dog has changed his mind, was not charging me a licensing fee.