Personally, not being friends with most cheaters, I believe they should get another chance under specific circumstances. Cheaters are similar to people who mass RDM as they have negatively affected people and they never think they're going to come back because they don't like the server. Yet, people who mass rdm are happily welcomed back but cheaters are very controversial. Therefore, I don't understand how people can use the excuse, "they knew what they were doing," when a lot of banned people did but they aren't all permanently banned.
People regret their actions and they change, doesn't matter whether they knew what they were doing or not as everyone's mindset is liable to change.