And anyway, what makes it okay to squish plastic Amy, when the previous episode has been all about showing us (albeit clumsily) that plastic-people-are-people-too-and-who-are-the-real-monsters and so on?

No, that made no sense at all to me. The friend with whom I was watching suggested Flesh!Amy was different because she was still dependent on Real!Amy, but that seemed to contradict the case that Cleaves and OtherFleshGuy were about to make to the company about the remaining Gangers.