I sure think it would be better for AMA to distance itself from the whole quad copter/drone business. Incidents should be openly condemned and a clear line drawn between 'us' and 'them' and fight any efforts to lump us together. We can't control that and can't let them drag us all down. AMA doesn't need this marriage.
Dave, I think that you are conflating quad copters with "drones" (however you may be defining that term).
Any model aircraft that can be radio controlled can be made into an autonomous drone. Fixed wing, rotary wing, quad copter, blimp -- anything. Period.
Quad copters just happen to be the easiest thing to make into an autonomous drone -- but it's by no means the only thing. And when you fly them under visual contact, with a transmitter in your hand, they're basically just a different kind of helicopter.
Given how much fun people seem to have flying them, and how much cheaper and simpler they are compared to helicopters (at least if you don't look inside the electronics), I don't think you're going to get very far trying to tell the AMA that they can support any kind of RC except the kind that happens to have a few propellers pointed up.