Too early in the morning for this thread.....

peace to all

I don't see the example in the OP as being anal retentive. If a photographer is concerned about protecting her images from being used without permission, she must thoroughly and consistently add copyright marks and notices on all images. One reason to be thorough with copyright markings is that a lot of people honestly don't realize that it's not kosher to download a photo and post it on their own site. I think many people have the idea that if it's on the web, it's up for grabs.

I've had many images taken from my sites and used on other sites without credit or permission, and a major magazine printed a photo of mine from my photo blog. Strangely, it was credited, even though they didn't ask permission to use it (and it was not a press/publicity photo).