It may sound harsh but I do not disagree with the renewed demerit system, and yes I do agree with you that this is proper, professional racing compared to the (pardon my crude language) BS we all at least had in Sport Mode/FIA races online. I believe no one should be discouraged heavily just because stricter measures are in place.
Everyone deserves and desires hard racing, in a well-respected manner. I know we all make mistakes from time to time, but cautiousness should be greatly placed among ourselves best.
Another thing to note, would technicalities fall foul to these categories or at least in reduced form? Technicalities include lagging, time delay between players, hardware/software glitches. I know of a classic technicality involving me and another racer back then, where different replays showed completely different positioning of the cars at the same time (approx. 1 second difference).