This happened to a small game of mine. I included the instructions of how to play the game, and those instructions required the use of the same word a lot of times. I too had my game suspended, but realized that it must have been the use of the word, and because I couldn't figure out how else to explain the rules without using the word a lot, I just had to remove the instructions from the description completely - but that did the trick, and the game did get put back in Google Play.
However, this did happen before the Dev Center design change and I WAS able to go in and modify my game's description and that's how I noticed what the problem must have been. I think they should at least allow read-only access to the app's info so you can legitimately investigate.
I didn't include this info above, because what happened and what I did may not both be agreed with by all.
I think the big difference between how this situation was handled and how I handled it is that in this situation the author seemed to argue that what he did was acceptable. They already said they don't think it was.
I wouldn't assume that they would come back with more info about the violation, and I doubt they would change their interpretation of the violation.
I believe that when I wrote in, I explained what I thought the problem might be related to (and a few other possibilities) and agreed to change it to be compliant. It may not be what's best for my app, but it's kind-of a David and Goliath situation, so I decided to do what they wanted so my game could stay in the store.
I pretty much agree with the approach. I don't want to think other developers are getting special treatment, so I shouldn't either, so they are going to to be strict with, and stick by their rules.
In the late 90s Google dominated its competition largely because they were susceptible to keyword stuffing. In the following decade they allegedly heaped on layer after layer of algorithms to determine the best rankings beyond simple page rank.
Today, they use nothing more than simple keyword scoring to power their Google Play search.
This algorithm is so simplistic anyone over a certain threshold must be completely purged from the store, even if the app is highly rated by many users. No other alternative means exist.
Is Google's search algorithm really as complex as they've been telling us it is?
However, this did happen before the Dev Center design change and I WAS able to go in and modify my game's description and that's how I noticed what the problem must have been. I think they should at least allow read-only access to the app's info so you can legitimately investigate.