I've read all this drama now, with all the third parties chiming in on the ethics of the situation. It's how it happened that matters, and not what because without the how there is no event. Rage would be alive with no ordeal if not for entirely external circumstance allowing him to be manipulated to death. Arguably, the mistake was one that Rage either did or did not have to live with the consequences of. Considering that punishing personal indiscretions is not a part of the game in regards to online security, I can't really disagree with the decision to resurrect him. Without Gato knowing Rage personally, and them apparently not being very good friends to the point where trust would be betrayed, the only way this could have happened would be phishing or cracking into accounts. The former is just a volatile situation, and the latter is really sketchy. I think Spiff would agree that both of these are patently uncool.
The method for what happened here was not part of the game, it's just part of the internet. Hopefully Rage just gets his security issues together and the rest is no loss.
Whether this situation would play out the same way for anyone else; for one thing, you'd probably never hear about it because it wouldn't be big news. There's social politics here. I doubt that would affect the decision, but because the situation would be smaller it would probably go unvoiced.