It would be more appropriate to say that a comment is dead, because you can tell that by looking at it, than that an account is banned, because you can't tell that by looking at it, and when you get that wrong, it's misleading. I definitely should have communicated this more clearly above; I'm sorry I didn't.

It's not just nitpicking. We've gotten many emails from distressed users asking why they were banned because they believed this misinformation. Usually it's nothing more than a duplicate comment that got killed, or something nearly as innocuous.

Edit: I thought about this overnight and I do think there's some merit to your proposal. (I don't buy the thing about email not being accessible enough, but that's separate.) It would need some careful design thinking—something I haven't had a minute for all week—so don't expect anything right away.