Different environments causes different thinking from others (from my experience). Not everyone has the luxury of being able to grind where they want, when they want. Not all players are the same, some play casually, some are hardcore(the higher levels). These high levels usually get more of a feel of how frustrating it is to keep getting ksed everywhere they turn while their tickets are running. For some this turns into frustration and they look for an easier solution(not necessarily making it a legit solution).
This is where i believe you're choice makes a difference (obviously). For some (Vandango), i guess he felt this frustration and decided that he couldn't take a break from the game and decided to bot. For others, people are simply just lazy and decide to bot not caring about anyone else that is affected by it. Others who may/may not have felt the stress he had (as a college student, you are busy) can easily take a break and decide not to bot.
This is not the case of "oh im a lazy bastard who can't grind on my own". He made great contributions to this forum and was appreciated by many(including myself). If you're looking at this based on only one view then you're being ignorant and not trying to understand the whole situation. What you do in game sometimes says how you are in real-life.
If you're an experienced player, imo you can easily tell who's legit and who's a botter(you can be wrong but whos always right

). Vandango was clearly not a botter till he couldn't handle it anymore. Vandango caved in and let the worst get him. But, this doesn't mean that all he said as a mod was bullshit or hypocritical. In my eyes, he did believe that being legit is the right thing to do.
If you find all this obvious, feel free not to write back. You have no idea how many times something seems obvious to you, but to others are not.