Another reason might be it was not the first time she “smuggled” smartphones into tournaments she participated in when she got caught. She became 1p in 2020, and only reached 2p in early 2024. Then immediately she won quite a few games and at the beginning of Dec 2024 (for games before the end of Nov 2024 and before the 12/15 incident), she had already reached the rating required to advance to 3p.
And if we check her games, her games lately were quite “strange”, she either won very early or resigned very early (against known strong opponents, she even played against Kim Eunji in Wu Qingyuan Cup and resigned in just 148 moves). Almost none of her recent games passed 150 moves. You can check some of her recent games yourself.
They were quite different from her games before 2024. Which often went into scoring, or beyond 200+ moves before resigning, and fighting to the end. And there were always rumors that the CWA was quite relaxed in their security and checking previously (thus allowing the “toilet incident” to become a taking point in the past). Hence this harsh punishment right now after months when she got caught might be a signal to people questioning their resolve.