I think John gave you a clear explanation of the enforcement challenge with respect to the ideas being presented in this thread. How many 38 mm restrictors have been found to be 50 mm? How do you determine intent without an admission?
There have been some enlarged or removed restrictors discovered in tech. Not many but some. I don't think there can be any doubt about intent in either circumstance. I suppose someone could say that their restrictor plate was missing because they forgot to re-install it or that their crew forgot to install it, but either way the infraction is the same. I don't know if we should be in the determining intent business.
Varying penalties based on the nature of the infraction seems to make sense though. Someone whose car is 5 pounds underweight after a race should be penalized less than someone whose car is 50 pounds underweight or has no restrictor plate or has an illegal sway bar. A cylinder head with 1 valve or seat out of compliance should be penalized less than 1 which has all 16 out of bounds.
I do appreciate you and John weighing in here and after reading so many of the posts in the other thread and in this one, it seems like as a racing community many of us SM drivers need to brush up on the GCR and not necessarily the SM section but the rest of it.