A theme league rules said "Forfeit any game in which an illegal player is used". One owner ran into fatigue problems so he purposely used illegal pitchers to rest his arms. Told on himself, expecting to lose all 3 games one way or another. He actually lost all three but the commish imposed an additinal 3 game penalty for violating the spirit of thegame.
What say you? Follow the rules as stated, or allow for judgement based on motive?

I would have given him a lot more than three additional games

I guess it depends on how he told on himself as to whether I'd want to ostracize him completely, but you have to know that's violating the spirit of the rule, it's designed for when someone carelessly calls up AAA without thinking about it, not for what's clearly an attempt to gain an advantage and rescue himself from self-inflicted fatigue issues

Going lawyer mode is not conducive to leagues functioning well

You cant forfeit a game that you actually lost.

It's an interesting question. I've been in leagues like this, and though I've never seen this loophole exploited I wondered what would happen if someone did use it. I've never been tempted personally just because I would've hated "going lawyer mode" to defend my decision.

I think when rules are stated explicitly, you need to follow them. If it doesn't seem like a harsh enough penalty, then the penalty needs to be increased before it happens again.