I totally get that there's a spectrum of responses and that everyone has good reasons for feeling the way they do. I don't think one is right and another wrong. They're all right.

From a moderation point of view the questions are: where is the cost/benefit optimum for the community, and what is most in keeping with the intended spirit of the site?

I don't think punishing people for past crimes should be a primary function for HN. IMO the cost of that outweighs the benefit, and it isn't optimal for what we want here (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...).

That's why I'm willing to make a rare out-of-band exception for a post like this. But not so often that it becomes a Thing.