I've been thinking about the difference between a visa and an ESTA. I reckon we look at them as very different animals when they are both much the same thing.
You deposit an application and your passport at an embassy to obtain a visa. They think about it and then they either say yes or no. Apply for an ESTA and they think about it and then say yes or no. They are actually the same animal!
The difference is that, I suspect, most of us never really give much thought to the ESTA process because we always get a yes. It takes no more than a couple of hours. In particular, updating an existing ESTA, until the issue reported by Union Jack, have any of us ever had an existing ESTA rejected? I doubt it.
Apply for a visa and we are more on tenterhooks. It takes longer and we're left wondering and waiting.
I'm going to wait until someone has their application to enter the EU rejected on their ESTA equivalent.