I guess that the difference is that I do not see being excluded from an airdrop as punitive action. Nothing was taken away from them, they still have their steem balance and none of their inherit rights have been removed on steem as stakeholders. They were just not included on a new platform as stakeholders although their accounts names and public keys are replicated so they are free to use them if they wish to do so.

Imagine if in the real world you could create a whole new country out of thin air and replicate what you had in the old one. If two sectors of the population are unable to come to an agreement on how to coexist and one of the communities decided to pack their bags and start over but did not invite the opposing group, would you say that the ones left behind were punished? They still have their homes and jobs plus they even have more room to expand into.

That is the difference between the digital and the real world and also the reason that you cannot equate voting systems of the real world with the digital/blockchain space.