I agree that it's in gray zone, but gray zone is gray, not black. So what mods are doing is executing unwritten/imagined rules.
I don't believe there are any moderators involved. This is an issue of trust between a user and other community members as a result of their actions.
Listen, and I repeat myself here,
it is nowhere stated in the original merit thread that you ain't allowed to share your merits with your friends, so we get penalized for doing something that isn't restricted. And they are even admitting it as you can see from the post above. We have issue here, this is what happened & it is allowed, as described in official thread. It's 100% logically permitted by rules.
With that statement you have just admitted to what you did.
Whether rules or not allow it is irrelevant.