But why such a radical solution for a relatively minor non-problem?

Our founders provided a method for the people to change the laws that would govern them, and it is outlined in Article V. Regardless of what you or I may personally think of the merits of this issue, 50 state legislatures have petitioned Congress for a flag-protection amendment. That is unprecedented in our history. Our society would be facing a real problem if such an outpouring of public support for a constitutional amendment was somehow thwarted or ignored. We are a government of the people, and the people are exercising their rights as given to them in the Constitution. The majority is not infallible, but neither is the minority infallible. Yet our government is based on a system of procedures, outlined in the Constitution, for amending the Constitution. We are following that procedure, and that is a healthy exercise for our republic.