Project 1999 - Pathetic GM Bans?

Last friday, me and 3 friends were in Blackburrow, using "pathing exploits"
to get gnolls fangs for our level 9 friend, who happens to be brand new to the Everquest world. In all honesty, we had no idea a that sitting on a ledge that nullified agro was a "pathing exploit." Everquest back in the day was constantly patched, so in retrospect we just thought it was a handy glitch.
I've seen so many others do it, including two applefarts named "Thaid" and "Dukeof". These fellows are the ones who petitioned like a bunch of little girls and got us banned for a week, even thought they themselves were using the same exploit. The GM, "Amelinda" told us that the petitioners mentioned to us that we were exploiting the system, and we "ignored" their warnings.
BS. They sat around quietly trying to block the ledge we were using, petitioning away. Here's where you're going to say something predictable like, "Just wait it out, retard." That's what we're doing. However, you're stupid and I'll explain precisely why:

We were banned for a week for helping our friend out by using an "exploit." Well, WTF do you think you are doing by playing EQ on an illegitimate server in the first place? Exploitation.
I'm not going to call the GM a "Nazi" for suspending us for a week because it's too prosaic. I do however feel that a warning would have been much, much more appropriate.
All three of us have never exploited EQ before. Why not go after bigger problems? We were simply trying to get our friend up to our level so we could group together. Now, he is done with EQ. And, I think I'm done too.

"who cares?"
You should, because more and more people are quitting, which means less populated zones. EQ is largely a social game, so you do the math.

Additionally, our new friend to EQ had absolutely nothing to do with the
"exploitation" part; he was simply looting what we were killing. It was our fault (Yes, I accept responsibility for what we did) and not his. Why is he banned? Oh, because the GM wouldn't listen. I get it, she's the boss. She can do what she wants. But, with power comes responsibility.

p.s. Don't even come to me with the " it doesn't matter, ignorance doesn't make what you did acceptable." line because it's not even about that; I'm not saying what we did should be acceptable. I'm simply saying the time should fit the crime.