I have to imagine that a lot of the strong emotions about Ace's punishment are only compounded by the lack of immediate punishment on HO's side.

The rules were clear for GMs. Unless nour included a specific clause in his recent rewrite regarding the failure to track/mistaken approve trades, it's up the owners to discuss what punishment is appropriate. If both punishments were presented at the same time instead being staggered like this, hard to say that as many points about both sides messing up would be repeated.