I dapped your post because it's very coherent, and honest, and I feel all of it. The problem is that I think them doing what you and others request would have damaged their contracts, so while it may have felt good temporarily, it would have hurt them in the long-run. They were never going to do this
What gets me about that photo is that, the way I heard it,
the white boy wanted to be part of the protest, but was vetoed, so he wore something in support of the two brothers. Since Doc said he was the only one who was going to speak for the team on this matter, it's possible that Doc is the one who orchestrated the warm up protest and told them they the NBA would allow them to wear black socks and black armbands in protest but anything else would fukk up the rest of their lives in the league? They became the white boy who wanted to also make a bolder gesture, but wasn't allowed to. You do what you can. Even Luz Long didn't throw middle fingers at Hitler, he did one better by treating Jesse like a human being and a brother in front of Der Fuhrer.
And like others said, it's kind of wrong to place this on the players, when it's the Commissioner and the other owners and the league itself which should be making the biggest statement.
The warm up photos have made international news. We'll see what happens for the next game.