Two related issues.
The first is the tendency of institutions to accumulate rules they make no effort to enforce. This is most obnoxious when it comes to laws, because it means the cops can always find some excuse to arrest you if they really want to, but with any sort of rule, my belief is that any rule worth having is worth enforcing, and any rule not worth enforcing isn't worth having.
The second, fortunately, does not apply to laws, but it's the way almost every internet community (TCS is one of the rare exceptions) has some rules which are enforced but never explicitly stated. Sometimes it's because mods have invented their own rules and no one can challenge them except for indifferent administrators. And sometimes it's because the topics cause controversy, and the admins act like shadowbanning a topic will prevent it but having the ban on the rules will make it worse, somehow? I'm not really sure of the reasoning, but I realized I've seen it a lot, and it's always controversial topics that get this treatment.