Parsing unfair but okay?

[HyoMinPark]

Bot ban waves happen irregularly because if SE were to ban a bot the instant it gets discovered, the bot makers just change it immediately and create a new bot account.
By allowing them to run for some time and the banning in huge irregular waves, it makes it a bit harder for them to change what got them caught.
It also concentrates illicit material in comparatively fewer bots.

There's also some bots that get put on watchlists so they can trace the legit account that is the source player for the bot accounts.

If it helps any, think of it more like drug busting.
Sure, removing the dealer as soon as he appears on the street is good for the community. But unless they take down the supplier, a new dealer will pop up every day.
So they watch the dealers to catch the suppliers.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s how things work in this game. If so, well watching this ring of bots for 4+ years is certainly quite generous of the STF.

Be that as it may, and I do sympathize with your frustration as RMT and Botters are the scum of the earth, and were a particularly vexing pain point for me mining Darksteel ore in the Gusgen Mines in FFXI back in the day…

The fact that others are breaking the Terms of Service does not suddenly give carte blanche for one to do the same.

The developers aren’t enforcing the ToS when it comes to parsers because of the reasons I stated above—they know that if they suddenly start taking action, Savage dies. There’s no point in continuing to run it outside of getting gear. The competitive raid scene is built upon chasing leaderboards, and that scene keeps the content alive. As long as the parsers aren’t used to harass, SE will do nothing about them. When they are used to harass, the person is punished under the harassment clause—not the third-party software clause. See: Arthars.