1. I'm not sure that I have stated an opinion that it was.
at some point in this fiasco
The particular point in time does matter to me, in context. Was it before or after the matter was taken to court?
Both the license-seekers and the magistrate are being used by larger interests, and are taking extreme positions. I'll stipulate that.
2. I'll also stipulate that the courts, including SCOTUS, can make wrong decisions. It's silly not to, IMO, and one doesn't need to invoke Dred Scott to make the point. Doing so is a pretty sad trivialization of the ramifications of that decision.
3. I, in the narrowest personal sense, don't find a trip down another hallway to be an unreasonable hardship. On the other hand, I would understand if someone in that position found the refusal of services to be humiliating and discriminatory, and would similarly understand their desire to seek legal redress.
3. By the same token, I don't find stamping a document that legally validates a civil contract between two individuals who have the same reproductive parts to be a substantial burden on one's religious faith. There are matters of scale and substance here that are, IMO, being glossed over in fairly glib fashion. This is not forcing a rifle into a Quaker's hands, or enforcing a warrant on a runaway slave, or enacting the Nuremberg Laws.