shadowbanning to cheater-only servers sounds like nice middle ground to me

This is certainly one of the comparisons of all time

Bro touch grass. Seriously likening a VAC ban with the death penalty?! You can just email someone if you got banned; if you wrongfully died from the death penalty you can't just phone the judge and ask him to recheck lmao

I said cheaters, not suspected cheaters. I know that’s unrealistic, because no anticheat software is perfect, but I still want it.

You surely can permaban a cheater, and should. It doesn't mean the process can't be challenged.

Found a cheater

If, to you, not being able to play one game in the sea of many many many games is akin to death, maybe you need to see someone about addiction.

If you cheat in a game, you've burned your bridge. It's like taking a piss in the cereal isle of Kmart, you probably won't be welcome in that Kmart any more. Or hey, maybe you'll end up like an acquaintance I knew who was banned from a Kmart, maybe you'll be hired on as staff without them checking the binder of banned people. I think I've lost the plot of this analogy.

I agree, they should instead do a 10 gazillion year temp ban. I expect people would change by that point

/j

Why not both?

In the worst case scenario offender can just create another Steam account, so permaban is fine.