While I haven't ever been in trouble in FF14, I have had people report me for dumb stuff playing games like DarkSouls and others with a lot of interaction between players. I have always received an email from the devs/GM regarding the issue and some message about them looking into the matter (and I've never been banned BTW). In my experience there is usually some sort of proof for a ban to take effect, such as: screen shots or video of the disparaging remarks when it comes to harassment. I would wager that 99% of people know exactly why they have been banned, they just don't want to take responsibility for it for whatever reason.

Also, I could see how people have a hard time realizing that freedom of speech doesn't exist within a private organization's game/forum or whatever, so they may not agree that whatever they said or did was all that bad.