> why these little language change matters get some people so riled up

Well, ifn I know my fine Fong I'll bet this is a largely rhetorical bait, but I'll bite anyway. My guess is that one of the central roles of language is to define a sense of identity and community (see development of slangs and argots), and given this context some people get antsy when they feel somehow threatened by 'their' language being taken away from them by changing custom.

If there was one period in history that I would love to visit stealthily for linguistic interest, it would be the period of the Great Vowel Shift in England - it all happened in such a short period of years that such radical changes in the very phonology of the whole language must have been stunningly discombobulating to a lot of people, don't you think? Only of course they would have all hated the word 'discombobulating'... :]