I think you hit the nail on the head with that last example. Even if the letter of the law was broken, no one cared, because no one lost money. I really don't think the letter of the law or even the spirit of the policy is the issue. I'm pretty sure it's just money. If people aren't losing money, then they don't care.
For example, if wizards came out tomorrow and banned all RL cards from all formats, which would also solve the barrier to entry problem incidentally, I think that would cause much more of an issue than the breaking the letter of the law of the RL policy you highlighted in your example. Why? Because everyone lost a ton of money, and money is what matters.
Even though banning these cards has absolutely nothing to do with the RL policy, I highly doubt WOTC would ever do this because even though there would be no legal issues, a huge percentage of their consumers would quit.
I don't think the legality is an issue, nor do I think the letter/spirit of the law is really the issue. It's all just a means of protecting the one thing that actually matters, money.
