I agree. I personally don't care if it meets the official definition of human subject research. It was unethical, regardless of whether it met the definition or not. I think the ban is appropriate and wouldn't lose any sleep if the ban also enacted by other open-source projects and communities.
It's a real shame because the university probably has good, experienced people who could contribute to various OSS projects. But how can you trust any of them when the next guy might also be running an IRB exempt security study.