Let me clarify several things. I have no stake in this game. I am neither an entrepreneur nor a VC. I am not seeking money. I have no vested interest in this question and it will not affect my life. I am not trying to advocate a change in policy.
I have no particular knowledge of the frequency with which VC firms have sensible conflict of interest policies, but my naive assumption would be that this is again similar to having good HR policies. (Which is to say I am not particularly suprised when a company gets into public trouble in this regard.)
It seems perfectly reasonable, however, for the article author or anyone else to opine on how they'd prefer to see the VC industry run. For comparison, though I am not a resident of Texas it's perfectly reasonable for me to have an opinion about Texas's education policy, especially when the secondary effects impact the entire country.
I am somewhat frustrated and dismayed by (what I perceive as) an inability on your part to respond to my points or questions and a tendency to assign to me ideas I don't hold. As such, I'm tapping out of this discussion here.