For context, it’s a reference to this appeal. Without commenting on anything in the appeal itself, I was playing that round and the Nukie did indeed announce that.
gimmicks you mentioned were not allowed even before rules rework - i definitely remember someone doing maints slashing before and getting bwoinked
This is true, and something I learned from personal experience. The main issue is randomly attacking someone with basically no way to fight back (Northstars + Syndie soap = dead cargo tech before the stun ends) and leaving people to rot. With a twist to the gimmick, like only attacking Security/only in self-defense/giving clear warnings it may be more permissible.
also, no one enforces you to do objectives - you are just not allowed to go on a station-wide rampage unless you get DAGD, and it makes sense, because otherwise you can just say that this is your gimmick to murderbone the whole security department every round, which is simply unfun for most players
I do think there is a point to be made that objectives should not allow for what is otherwise rulebreaking behavior; it introduces inconsistencies and is not very intuitive for the player. You can DAGD without attempting to round remove half the station.
All this being said, I think OP has some strong points; some antag items very much enable murderboning and it is not clear what constitutes a valid use of an antag item and what doesn’t. Bulldogging Medbay? Not allowed. Pulling out an e-sword and slaughtering everyone on Evac? Maybe allowed? Syndiebombing Evac? Perfectly fine. Syndiebombing Medbay? Allowed, maybe, but if you don’t have an objective there the admin might get pissy despite objectives being optional.