That was what I was thinking, the moderators are not under any obligation to provide explanations when either temporarily or permanently banning a member. I think I have only seen one instance (not the one you referred to in the Croatian board) where a moderator might have made a comment but they do not give a running commentary.
That's one of the rare things I don't like about this forum, that mods don't answer on such threads. I do understand that no answer is also an answer, but it would make people speculate way less so instead members talking for years (like in RegulusHR case), they could just give a simple answer and end the conversations. Its not like there are many ban appeal cases anyway.
IIRC signature ban is somehow common when admin/moderator decide to remove permanent ban, although i no longer remember which member who got such treatment.
I only know about one case of signature ban and that's lovesmayfamilis, but I think I saw at least one more but can't remember the name now. I think that measure is seriously underused here, while it should be the obvious choice for the first time offenders.