Alcoholism is a developed disease. It is rare for the inflicted to ask for help due to the repercussions , this is a cultural problem.
Please allow me to quibble a little at the margins
In my personal experience as an alcoholic: Alcoholism is "a disease that develops". I.e. once you have it, it always gets worse. I believe that about 80 per cent of alcoholics acquire it genetically. We don't know how the other 20% get it. We do know that without certain genetic attributes, no person can swallow enough alcohol to pick up an addiction to the stuff! (I am massively over-simplifying here).
I suggest that it is indeed rare for the afflicted to ask for help: about 80 per cent of us die of the disease before we do that. And none of us do so willingly!
I personally did not "ask for help" until the pain of the repercussions exceeded the bliss available from drinking. I don't know any other alkies who did differently.
What's my point? My point is that alcoholics who survive this disease would be among the first to support harsh and inflexible penalties.
Because we know that without them, we will all die of this disease!
However, I suggest to you that many of these reports of booze in the cockpit are about non-alcoholics. Alcoholics expertly manage their booze consumption so they avoid the most obvious pitfalls. I drank for 26 years and never blew over the limit behind the wheel: alcoholics can do that.
Either way: my vote is keep the penalties, and make them inflexible: because my soon-to-become friends will die if you don't :-)