Quite frankly I don't buy it. Sounds to me like he wanted to play the legal games and during that time Google just happened to review it.
Google's "review" process is automated. Everything possible at Google is automated. If you don't get the attention of a human, you've got no recourse, and that effectively means if you don't have popular friends, you've got no recourse.
We had an adwords account recently auto banned with a generated email with no reasoning for the ban. To play it as safe as possible we spent the best part of a day submitting a comprehensive document going into far more detail than needed on why the ban was a mistake. We got unbanned last week but as of yet haven't received a single correspondance from Google past the initial automated email from Google.
I'd be interested to see the average earnings of those banned with limited recourse. e.g., is it under $200/mo or are a lot with $1k/mo+ getting done.
I suspect that low level sites are more or less ignored and put in the too-hard basket. Imagine how many smallfry sites they'd be reviewing out of less-developed countries where the cost to investigate deeper would just outweigh the early advantages of having them in the program. Easier and cheaper to just ban, piss off that kid abroad with his brand new motor bike forum, and keep raking it in from more established sites.