That's what it sounds like the mod did, and who knows what was going on in their mind?  Being a moderator on a forum like this, where there's so much crap to delete and so many reports to process has got to be an almost overwhelming job--and I give bitcointalk mods a lot of credit for the work they do.  They're paid to do the job, but my understanding is that it's not exactly a job that would make someone wealthy.  Be glad they deleted all the old bumps they did, and if you see any subsequent bumps accumulating, report those too.

I'd wager that a lot of members haven't really read through the rules here and aren't aware that they need to delete old bumps--and even if members have read the rules, sometimes they just don't care enough to do it and figure a mod will take care of the problem (if they even give it a second thought).  I don't know how big of a problem this is overall, but I wouldn't worry too much about it, OP.  Just keep reporting any violations and you've done your part.