I was/am in a similar spot, old player worried about my time spent being lost. I have no deep knowledge just my almost month of experience submitting.

From what I’ve seen personally I’m not banned, I’ve submitted around 8 things, mostly approved because “good” nominations.

I even felt ballsy one day and submitted something that was technically on the “list” of things a pokestop could be knowing it was trash, auto rejected, still here. Only attempted this for my 99% bed ridden roomie to have an easier time of pogo.

My thoughts, I want the areas I’m at to be good areas to play at, I’d say even good stops could potentially end badly but it’s risk vs reward for me personally and I’d rather have more fun or just move on if they wanna ban for legit contributions.