When a feature or function are described by the dev team with them using words like "punish" and "penalty" and "ban", it usually means they couldn't come up with a fair system. So hey let's kick the user end experience in the nuts instead.

Notice how many areas of the game have this? How many times have we also seen the "unable to do X at this time because of Y" bullshit?

People should be able to drop groups without getting penalized.

People should be able run a replacement search WHILE INSIDE THE GODDAMN DUNGEON, and be able to add friends and FC mates at will.

Then it wouldn't be such a dumb, traumatizing experience when people drop, and we'd see less thread topics like this one.