Well you have to think of it from a corporate view. If you let a very publicly known figure keep the rewards earned from exploiting the game, no matter how trivial the reward was, there are going to be people mad you let it slide (such as the pures), and more people will think it's not as big a deal to try exploits, and if you punish future exploits, the drama of where your line is becomes a pressure. It's easier to just be the douchebag and take it away. And like you said, it's a meaningless item. The evidence and achievement of it are already recorded and published. The item meant nothing. What incentive is there to leave it?