#1 its against the rules.
#2 you - as a newbie - are still moderated by parolers, which might be more strict.
#3 I have seen lengthy threads that just had their ref links removed instead of deleted. I would think your post was probably not spam per se, even though I did not see it.
Entire point of this thread was/is: As a Newbie am I not allowed to question the rules which I don't understand? Why do anyone have to take anything w/o understanding the logical reasoning behind it? Which link can be
more dangerous for potential user? Downloadable link (where they dont know up front what could be inside that) or Referral link (where they can see what they are clicking upon & even google that site even before clicking on that referral link)