I’m going to start by saying: I stand with the unions and don’t think she should be working.
I have one question though, this other article that OP posited indicates she isn’t violating any of the strike rules for the WGA or SAG, so how is this different than when Jon Stewart, Colbert, and Conan kept their shows going during the last writers strike? No one called them scabs at that time. I don’t really care about her one way or the other, it seems like a double standard though.
Just commenting because this is a really good point and I'd love to know whether there's an answer besides "the other folks mentioned are loved more by the internet", since I really don't know about the specifics here.
I do understand the rationale behind "there are non-writers who work on the show and they still need their jobs", though. While it would be nice if this strike turned into a general strike in the entertainment industry, I don't even know how many of those other folks are unionized.
The answer I saw regarding Jon Stewart was in response to the same question comparing Jon and Bill Maher with his recent announcement. That was that Jon Stewart was not a member of the WGA during the last strike and continued without his writers to keep the non-union workers getting a paycheck.
If true, it doesn’t necessarily make it ok, but it also doesn’t hurt that Jon Stewart seems likable and didn’t staunchly defend his decision, in fact indicating it was very much a struggle for him to make it.
Conan is a WGA member that ran his show during the last writer’s strike. At the end of the day I think your second point is the most important, Jon Stewart and Conan are likable, Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher aren’t. Either way it’s a double standard that I think is valid to bring up.
The "loophole" that I am hearing is that Drew isn't acting on this show, so this isn't under her umbrella of acting.
Historically, we have seen Colbert's hosting of previous show The Colbert Report deemed to be "acting", but I don't know if modern talk shows are considered to be run by hosts, or actors playing a character.