It sounds like an oblique reference to that time they temporarily suspended one of the of the most valuable members of the community, apparently for having the audacity to suggest that their powers to suspend members of the community seemed a little arbitrary and open to abuse.

Well they could just say that instead of wasting people's time with oblique references

Saying "This stinks of BS" is going to mean you have little standing to criticise other people for wasting time.

Temporarily? Tim Peters got reinstated?

Apparently so: https://lwn.net/Articles/1002340/