-snip-
If such posts do not break any forum rules (which appears to be the case, since the posts are still up), would you agree that a retraction and an appology from Lauda may have been instrumental in amicably resolving this issue?
I think what you fail to grasp is that there are no hard rules. If Lauda thinks (or thought, mods are people and may change their mind) the post in question is a violation of the given rule they can act accordingly. That does not imply that every other mod has to act in the same way. Other mods are free to interpret the rules the way Quickseller suggested upthread and mark the report as bad, because it does not apply to threads outside of the marketplace area.
Edit: mexxer-2 beat me to it, see the quote above.