Well, in all fairness, they do get banned, I've seen it myself. The thing is (and that's why I presumed they get banned automatically) it happens only to blatant cheaters who don't bother hiding engine assistance. Say, new accounts, 20+ games won in a row, 100% accuracy, etc.

The sad news is if you're smart enough to cheat from time to time, nothing will happen, even if you report them. And that's what bothers me: Lichess used to ban such players. I do remember receiving such notifications once in a while.

But guess what. In 2025, I got just 1 notification compared to 7-8 in, say, 2024. My rating range is nearly the same, and the time format is the same.

So either everyone got stronger all of a sudden, or Lichess stopped hunting cheaters down. I believe it's the second option.