I'm interested to hear what real-world experiences have lead you to think this way.
From what I've seen, exceptions can always be made and people will often put up with it, depending on the circumstances. Look at the number of people in here who don't believe what the OP did should be a crime, and don't consider his actions immoral. You're telling me those people wouldn't accept a little rule-bending if they were on the team? I can't agree.
If your point is that some people will accept some rule breaking, then rule breaking is okay, I simply don’t agree.
Of course some people will accept rule breaking. There’s always people that will justify it post hoc. There are also others that won’t. The real problem is you’ve now created a culture of rule breaking. Soon everyone will be violating policies as a matter of due course.
This is exactly how you get lawsuits and criminal complaints. If you’re lucky, you just have a toxic culture that hurts recruiting and retention. People here always complain about “politics”, but that’s exactly what this is.
If you need examples of where exceptions came back to bite people and companies in the ass, it’s everywhere. Theranos, Uber, Zenefits, Google, the list goes on and on. Even so, I fully expect advocates for capricious enforcement (ie protecting their friends) will further justify it by saying something about how the fines and settlements were “good business decisions” or something, because self justification knows no bottom.
From what I've seen, exceptions can always be made and people will often put up with it, depending on the circumstances. Look at the number of people in here who don't believe what the OP did should be a crime, and don't consider his actions immoral. You're telling me those people wouldn't accept a little rule-bending if they were on the team? I can't agree.