Even if something was possible on retail does not mean it isn't an exploit. There are a lot of things that we've fixed along the way that were possible in retail vanilla, even common use in retail vanilla, but that doesn't mean it isn't an exploit.
The end result is that these players had multiple warnings on their accounts and were told that any further abuses would result in a permanent loss of their character if they continued to pursue and intentionally use exploits. The players did continue to pursue and intentionally use exploits and were banned as promised. Any further threads on this topic will be locked as it is now considered spam.