Should I recommend rejection for a paper I referee if the authors don't make changes that they could have made?
It's totally reasonable to be upset that the authors ignored your comments, but for the purposes of reviewing the paper, I think you should set that aside.  I would let the editor make the decision as to whether the authors are "unwilling to make reasonable adjustments".  Send him/her a note saying something like:


  I mentioned in my initial report that it was essential for the revisions to address the issue of XXXX, but this has not been done, nor mentioned in the authors' comments.  This paper has many good qualities, but I do not think the paper is suitable for publication if this issue is not addressed.  If you feel it is worth the time to ask the authors for a further revision addressing this issue, I would be happy to read it and give my opinion.


I think it's up to the editor to judge between "this is a paper I really want in my journal, so I'm willing to put up with a little bit of crap" or "the authors are wasting our time, to hell with them".