All people, who were known to global mods (like hilarious) were unbanned very fast. And people who are useful for local communities but not in english - still banned for now. That's weird.
This is a weighty allegation and should be looked in so as to avoid stifling the budding local boards across the forum. Based on this, I support the OP's suggestion listed on 4 as quoted below...
4. Introduce a community voting to decide if banned users should be unbanned
The local community will at best know posters who are I dispensable to them and as such should make their votes count in unbanning them if certain other members who post in English are getting that unban privilege based on recognition.