How do you think Yoshida would react to the following hypothetical regarding parsing?

[Mahrze]

Rival MMO's could also potentially exploit the situation for their own game by highlighting that they allow for the use of certain mods, too.

As much as I agree with the sentiment, I doubt some of the mods that Yoshi has gone against will be "praised" by a community if they are approved elsewhere. There is a difference, and I doubt any rival MMOs would be able to exploit it without any caveats.

Besides, if they did ban thousands of players then that'd open the door to people asking why they haven't banned the hundreds of players who hang around in Ul'dah on Balmung and Mateus with explicit search info.

A clear example of "but they did/do it too". Its glaring and well known issue with SE that there is varying levels of bias/willingness to enforce certain things in the community. But its a whole different issue when this proposed situation is so polarizing and that you're openly "breaking the rules" because you want "to make a point".

There's an old saying in my neck of the woods that "for every bad thing, you need to do at least 10 good things to compensate". I'm sure there are better ways to approach the situation, but what's proposed here will do more harm than good.

There seems to be a lack of cultural understanding here.

This argument can easily go both ways. Its a big problem when neither party wants to meet the other where they are at because they refuse to see where they are at.