WALL OF VENOM (a Bruce Allen joint)
This is a solid example of the time honored "well these other things are bad and didn't get punished so this thing that was bad shouldn't get punished either."
The "Why this but not that?" defense is applicable to basically any issue in any conceivable circumstance, which is why it's so popular with hacks of the professional and amateur varieties. My personal favorite recent use was that if you didn't travel back in time and boycott Donald Sterling when he did racist stuff decades ago, he gets a blank check to keep doing it in perpetuity.
It's fair to say this is getting an inordinate amount of attention and handwringing of all kinds, partly because it's the Patriots and partly because there's still 10 days to kill before the Superb Owl, but commonplace cheating is still cheating. There's no way any of the ridiculous penalties ol' Angerbot up there is suggesting will come to pass though. They'll just fine them and hopefully tighten up ball check procedures for the future.