Why not a warning?

[Vahlnir]

S-E were at fault for not doing something at first, for being lenient, but they can't be at fault since they are doing what they are supposed to do: applying their ToS against those players who are breaking them. They have decided that enough is enough. No one would be this mad if measures were taken against bots, no matter how late. People who use 3rd party tools were given a kind of "free pass" for a while and now they don't have it they are losing their mind. Well, you were never supposed to have it and you know it. Enough with the mental gymnastics. YOU WERE NEVER ALLOWED. End of discussion.

They are partially (as in...partially, not completely) at fault for being so lenient up until now. I don't use mods with FF XIV and I never have, so there's that too. But yeah, they were never allowed. Obviously. But their general inaction paved the way for players to keep pushing the limit to see what they could get away with. Apparently they pushed too far, hence the Lodestone announcement yesterday. And that is well within their right to act on. Anyone caught using mods and publicly displaying their ToS violations was playing with fire, and they burned. I have no sympathy for anyone who uses mods, knowing full well they aren't allowed, but this is a situation that SE had a bit of a hand in making.

[Ranhansha]

They are partially (as in...partially, not completely) at fault for being so lenient up until now. I don't use mods with FF XIV and I never have, so there's that too. But yeah, they were never allowed. Obviously. But their general inaction paved the way for players to keep pushing the limit to see what they could get away with. Apparently they pushed too far, hence the Lodestone announcement yesterday. And that is well within their right to act on. Anyone caught using mods and publicly displaying their ToS violations was playing with fire, and they burned. I have no sympathy for anyone who uses mods, knowing full well they aren't allowed, but this is a situation that SE had a bit of a hand in making.

They might be at fault because they allowed people to get a bit too comfortable, but, in my opinion, now players are blowing things out of proportion. This stuff was never accepted, so what are they on about?
To be honest, the last one, wasn't the first announcement on the topic and their stance was always clear. At least it was for me. If people had any kind of doubt it was because of other players spreading misinformation or "just don't say" which, apparently still applies since Yoshi-P said they can't track what your PC is doing. The problem is people are shamelessly showing off their screens filled with mods and that's as dumb as it gets. What are they supposed to do? I don't use them and, what's more, I wouldn't even report someone if I knew they were using something like a damage meter, shadders or a translator. I don't see the harm in those. However, I like the fact that they seem to be cracking down on stuff like cactbot, which I believe is the one that calls the mechs for you.