What does that have to do with kids though? That was the decision of what I assume to be a bunch of clueless adults. Every single person I've come across that grew up with the books and has found out about the illustration change has complained about it. I have a friend that works at a used bookstore and she says that it is impossible to keep the originals on the shelves because parents come in all the time looking for 'the versions with the creepy art' to give to their kids. They remember how much they loved that and want to pass it on.

People complained about the illustrations back when the books were at their peak, and they were popularly 'banned books', but if anything that just exacerbated their popularity among children.

I'm not saying that adults in this country don't overreact to the macabre being shown to children, but kids themselves eat it up, which is what I find odd about OP's secret, because it conflates the opinions of a few conservative adults with the children that the books are actually targeted toward.