Haven't his actions since then shown how he's changed

Well since his actions over the last 5 years was break the rules to ban evade, no. That's 5 years of breaking the rules every single day his account was active. Nothing in spending 5 years breaking the rules says "I've learnt my lesson about not breaking the rules."

Now the rules stand as they are & until those rules change, he broke them, he did so knowingly & he is now going to suffer the consequences for that.

Now until those rules change he is still in the wrong & so his case is utterly immaterial to a discussion of wether or not those rules should change & what model they may change too.

You can't sit here & complain that the rules are being applied subjectively & how it's wrong that they get applied subjectively & then try to justify why this person should be one of the recipients of that subjective application.