I think what you're missing is that the whole notion of IE seems to be that the person simply shouldn't struggle with overeating. The problem isn't the overeating needs to stop, it's the struggling with it that needs to stop. If their body wants to overeat, then the "right" thing to do in order to "respect their body" is to overeat. Instead of trying to control your overeating, you need to embrace it and accept that your body is becoming the body it is meant to be and so you should be happy with whatever results.

It sounds like something that started off as a somewhat reasonable, though also somewhat kneejerk, reaction to one thing and then went whole-hog off the rails.

The idea seems to stem from opposition to all of the various diet/health plans that tell you want to do and when to do it according to the plan and without any regard to what your body is trying to tell you. Instead, we should get more in tune with what our body IS trying to tell us. Fine, I can get behind that notion 100%. But then it went full-on whacky and ended up in a place that basically says that we should do whatever we think our body is trying to tell us at the moment, no questions asked, because to do anything else is to disrespect our body.

Sounds like the parenting philosophy that was a rage some time back where you let your children do whatever they wanted because that was how they "explored their world". What you ended up with, of course, was a bunch of spoiled, self-centered, entitled and insufferable brats.