This line will always exist: The line between artists that do art regardless of being offensive, and those who do art with some P.C., social awareness, ergo: playing it safe. You, as a publisher/designer, continuously help that line get traced... and your decision on child violence and DRUGS seems to be on the P.C. self censorship side - something your advocates wish were less so. The way you present your argument is subjective and judgmental saying that child violence "seems gratuitous, unnecessary, and cruel". Yet, you don’t take the time to illustrate how: How is it gratuitous? Is your assumed adult audience thirsting for child violence so much that you fear they might select your game as THE outlet? How is it unnecessary? Are ALL the children in post-apocalyptic D.C. good and pure? How is it cruel? Are they entirely alone and defenseless? How are you avoiding the line?
Do you think those people that blame GTA for their violent behavior are victims of GTA? Consider what your game is saying: Washington DC is, will be, in nuclear ruin... holy crap, I hope NO ONE plays your game and loves EVERY minute ;)
Moreover, but the violence is cartoony... really? VATS is cartoony? The deaths of every character in your game are more real than in GTA, without question! I beat up the overseer, but chose not to kill him. Now, I don’t know if the game "lets" me, but the appreciation of my choice would suffer if i became aware that I couldn’t.
These responses presents to you an inconsistency your players are reacting to, not because they want to perpetrate the crime YOU deem foul, or just spot Bethesda’s PR justification, etc., but because they feel it makes your world a bit shallower, your development less consistent. I wonder, what made people continue to play fallout 1 even after having killed a kid? I don’t know, but that is your responsibility as a developer... how to help players deal with all their choices, no matter how bad they were, and not reset to an earlier save file.
PLEASE be consistent when dispensing YOUR version of morality, your version of that line to cross, to YOUR players.