Thank you Franky1, a lot of food for thought here !
You did introduce some notions I was not aware about.
This is clearer now. In short, as from my understanding now, and in a grossly simplified version, ''maximally penalized'' stands for Respect The Rules or Your block attemp will be reject
yep
follow the house rules or your not getting in the blockchain door of sitting on the blockchain sofa.. thats the maximum penalty
not getting in the blockchain for you to not be able to spend rewards, thus wasting all your time and resources trying