I think you’re splitting hairs. Did Totti cheat when he spat on Poulsen? Did Taddei cheat when he slapped Del Piero? Did Mourinho cheat when he gestured to a referee that he was handcuffed? Unsportsmanlike conduct has nothing to do with gaining an advantage in the standings. If it did, it would be an Article 6 violation. People get hit with Article 1s every week and we never hear about it because they mean jack shit. They usually result in fines and minor suspensions for players, coaches etc.
In any case, the sad truth is that the Article 1 violations are basically non existent now too. Remember that the calls weren’t incriminating as far as their content was concerned and it was legal to call the designators. The fact of the matter is that the teams punished were punished for maintaining what appeared to be nearly exclusive rapports with the designators which may have created a potential imbalance in treatment.
At the time it was Juventus, Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, and Reggina that had this “exclusive rapport”. We now know that it was also Chievo, Brescia, Vicenza, Cagliari, Inter, Udinese, Roma, Livorno etc. etc. etc. In the end it was 15 or more teams out of a potential 20.
Where’s the exclusivity? Bottom line if evidence hadn’t been intentionally hidden in 2006 there wouldn’t have been Article 1s either except for the instances where Moggi called league officials names (I think it’s safe to say that wouldn’t be cheating either).