quintoshAvastThis is a online community and once proven to be a hacker that trust can never be regained solely because in any online game where competitive play takes place there is the assumption that the other players don't hack.http://www.esl.eu/eu/rehab/
I think you and I both realize that isnt for players like bullet.
It even states "in example a young player can commit a one-time folly without thinking about the consequences". This is for players with a first time offense or did something unintentionally wrong. Bullet and his fanboys are most definitely not first time offenders and are most definitely not ignorant of the fact they're cheating.
A better example of that would be how we treated insom and Pharaoh when they were VAC banned. Most people gave them the benefit of the doubt and because of the circumstance of their one time offense since both were unrelated to TF2, they got off easy.
Granted, when looking at how we treated phrakture when his cheating came to light and how the community banded together to shit on him, perhaps you can see a bit of a popularity contest influence people's decision.