Pretty sure you can push it as far as you want.
First ban I suicided it on thieving (The time when you didn't get banned cuz mods weren't there to do it)
Second ban happened because Project (ProjectPact) had to do his S3 test and messed something up (Not sure if it ran for too long, or it was something else)
No. It isn't secret at all. I just know that there are some people who don't have the pleassure of using it cuz they don't know about it.
It's a more "safe" technique, as you might actually get your accounts unbanned by doing this, compared to when you just bot randomly.
I agree with you, but I'm pretty sure the jmods do know exactly what is going on, and I bet it is some company policy they have to follow (About unbanning).
The unban message is always the same, and contains this bit
"a period of unusual activity"
This basically indicates the switch in IP (Maybe computer. We will never know), so I technically don't think they'd do anything different for the third time.