Actually, that's the issue. We asked motherboard makers prior to
posting our updated story on this, and they stated that sustained (average) load exceeding 75W can lead to damage. This was further confirmed when we saw the voltage droop to 11.5V from the motherboard slot while the 6-pin connector (carrying the same current) was able to maintain 12.0V.
The other examples folks are citing are the Toms reviews which are measuring in a way that can see the instantaneous current spikes resulting from the DC-DC switching power supply on (all) GPUs. A switching supply, when measured in that way, is going to potentially spike above the limit. Motherboard makers have told us that those instantaneous spikes are not the issue. The issue is sustained load from the slot, which the 480 is exceeding.
What is causing more confusion is that plenty of cards in the past have exceeded the 6/8-pin spec, but we / others don't make such a huge deal about that since that is a direct link to the +12V rail of the PSU, which can usually handle way more than the stated limits for those connectors. Motherboard traces / PCIe pins are way more limiting.