It's not saying "Go and blind someone because it will be fun."

It's still an implementation of justice, and relies on a bedrock conception of justice as moral goal.

We don't agree with the implementation, but we still share the goal in the abstract.

The law isn't and never has been a moral benchmark. At best, a law reflects social consensus at the time of its enactment, but even that's not a given.

And proportionality matters. Community service and counseling, loss of time (imprisonment), and loss of a hand have all been used to punish theft. Which is correct? Which is the more moral, because it doesn't seem to me that they're the same?