I am amazed at the amount of emotion on this thread from all sides. It must be the judgemental internet that brings this out
I suppose that there can be some black and white about rules. But there should never be black and white about punishments (corrective actions)
If there were no consequences to rules then there would be no need to follow rules.
But give a thought to the negative and positive attitudes of applying punishment or reinforcement of the need to follow rules.
Assuming the rule breaker can provide value to the community then the object is to provide corrective action that salvages the good while reinforcing the need not to overcome this with even more bad.
That process should not be left to the public internet to decide since emotion without facts can not weigh the balances.
So the majority can talk about the rule breaking facts but add little to the weighing of consequences on either side of the argument.