Ban appeal process already exists. Most of ban appeal threads however don't even get an acknowledgment from the admins, like "hey, we reviewed your case, you will not be unbanned because x, y, and z, have a good day", or "here's a 2 year sig ban, don't make us regret it".
This seems like one of those useless things that some (or most) governments do when they have a dysfunctional bureaucratic process for some trivial thing, and instead of fixing it they slap another layer of arbitrary randomness on top of it. Someone who tried to do it the right way gets fuck all, but someone who happens to take advantage of the new loophole may get lucky.
Because not every banned user filed an appeal to be unbanned, this is a fantastic opportunity for those who departed with a clear conscience and those who were wrongfully banned for a single offence.
It's not a good sign when there are more banned accounts than active users.