Sort of true... I've actually seen hotels list rooms on AirBnB in San Francisco. The logic is that the type of people who are looking at AirBnB are looking at a specific price range, great location, good value, etc... . So if you're a hotel you can list a room or so on that platform that you otherwise might lose out on to an AirBnB competitor.
It's not simply NIMBYism. In NYC and other cities, there are legitimate questions about the preservation of (rapidly dwindling) affordable housing at stake.
NIMBYism (in the form of parking minimums and height/density restrictions) are one of the main causes of that housing shortage you mentioned. The fact that permanent residents feel like they are locked in a tight competition with short-term visitors is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.
So you would like to see the zoning rules changed, and that's a reasonable discussion to have. OTOH, the intent of zoning is to let people know what to expect when they move into a neighborhood. Changing that after-the-fact violates this agreement, and not surprisingly results in what you call NIMBYism.
