But serious damage to the overseas perception of US employers would result regardless.

It doesn't matter. Are the Indians and Chinese going to stop pounding on the doors because the American government makes the rules marginally more strict? No, probably not.

In the last 4 months, I've already seen more than 5 friends in my circle who've left the US for good. They do not plan on returning to the US until the pathway to a green card is sorted out. They work at companies like Microsoft, FAANG, etc. Over the next year, another 10-15% of my friend circle is moving out of the US - most of them cite the green card issue as the primary cause of returning back.

They've already worked at good tech companies here, most of which have offices around the world. Their choices directly cause the shift of their jobs from US to outside. Couple this with the fact that many of my juniors at the best universities in India (harder to get into than Stan/MIT here) now no longer consider moving to the US because of these cases, there is already an effect of really good talent not arriving here. The effect is not obvious in a year or two, but surely over time you will notice the secondary effects: a lot of engineers coming from India/China would not be the countries'best - the best do not want to put up with this, more employees leaving earlier/not settling, the expansion of India/China offices for these tech companies, or China/India companies doing better than the US counterparts (in cases where this is already happening, a lot of the HN crowd blames Chinese protectionism rather than acknowledging the talent that already exists in those countries).

USA is the new frontier for Indians and Chinese. If the laws get idiotic mostly idiots from these countries will flock to American shores. The brightest ones will go elsewhere.

In last 2 years we laid off entire QA department of my employer to move all those jobs to India. We then later moved half the engineering team in India and opened an office in Singapore to by pass US visa restrictions. US laws will not matter much to Indians or Chinese seeking better life, it is just that US society will waste a lot of wealth and opportunities to comply with them.

the overseas perception of US has been quite poor in asia and europe for a while now. dont think it can be further damaged.

People don't want to work in the US because they perceive employers as liberal.

What do you mean by liberal?

The normal way its used

See the article, it's the other way around. Courts are forcing the Trump administration to publish the rule instead of delaying.

Which is actually a good thing, because the constant delay meant we could not obtain an injunction nor sure if EAD would exist. Also some of the recent changes by USCIS means that time to get H4+EAD is now around 12 months. Effectively as good as killing EAD.

Courts have forced them to publish the rule on which we can then obtain an injunction.