A hypothetical situation.
User seo-expert makes a few fake signature posts in fairly rapid succession.
Moderator sees that the posts contain some value, but as fake signatures are against policy edits them out of the posts and sends a message to seo-expert asking them to please stop with the fake signatures.
Without knowing if seo-expert has read the message, if seo-expert makes a couple more posts with fake signatures, what to do?
If they are made within a short time of having sent the message, it can reasonably be assumed that they did not read it.
If they are made after an arbitrary length of time, it can be assumed that they read it but are ignoring it.
The problem I see is determining what the amount of time needs to be to “reasonably assume”.
IMHO it’s better to be generous in giving benefit of doubt and better to think of “multiple offenses” within a shorter period of time as a single offense.
Knowing for certain whether or not a member had read the message would eliminate the need of making assumptions and make being “judicious” easier.