I see both sides as somebody who has staffed large communities in the past even up until recently in circles larger but far disconnected from Discovery, where sanctions are instead dealt with via ticket systems and therefore privately for the most part.
It's a tough one because you don't want to put your foot down too hard on a server that is fragile in terms of playerbase at the moment. Understandable. How long this has been the case for I'm not really sure, someone else can answer that but I understand feeling like you don't want to cause problems for a faction that is effectively driving activity. Perhaps there's been words behind closed doors to the highest in command regarding reports to make them sort it out internally and prevent the reports from flying in more when the offences are at least not game-breaking (like cheating etc.) which is effectively still dealing with the issues but not in the public eye.
When it comes to sifting through reports, it is also sometimes hard to discern between personal bias against others which warps just how bad something is, and genuine problems that are left to fester. There's also nuances of where and why, considering factors such as if it's justified to gank the shit out of someone if they're clearly just waltzing into clear enemy territory to cause trouble etc etc. There also needs to be time given to staff to deal with it because it's rare for it ever to be a job.
With all those nuances stated though, the problem and the other side of the coin to this is that no one knows for sure, and Discovery's system has always been about public call-out presumably to set an example for others. To address the post above me, it's not public execution and historically it has always worked fine so I wouldn't say it's a massive problem. Some may not even read forums and they'd be none the wiser, nor is harassment of any individuals that have been sanctioned tolerated. Wouldn't worry about that. People, if they see it in-game as well, may also opt to help them understand better too and I know of at least one instance of that occurring today alone. It is important to do that before blindly reporting it I think.
Regardless, if there's no word from staff in a system where people expect a certain standard, then people will assume nothing is being done in the event that rules are actually being broken, because they don't have a reason to believe otherwise. Silence in this case is causing unrest and with this alleged volume of issues being reported, something should be said publicly at least. No one is above the rules, after all and these things exist for a reason.
There is certainly an argument to be made that maybe the system is antiquated and not how to deal with things now but it doesn't really change that rules exist for any game's online server so I don't think this is much different. People just have to read.
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