I was aware of the loop to take out more gold than normal, but not that this was game-generated gold. Honestly, I don't even see the point of poor families getting extra wealth: takes wealth to make wealth, it this was just abused by many over time. Thulsoma aren't the first to do this.
I generally dislike IC actions being taken to compensate OOC actions, though. Bolts would have been more appropriate than sending 5 extra armies.
It was done systematically and to a far greater extent than anything any of the devs had heard of before.
I do agree that bolts would have been a better answer, but that's not my call to make, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with sending armies to annihilate a realm that insults your religion. The fact that it took most of SA to do it is a function of OOC abuse, but if you're going to piss off the single most powerful bloc on the continent without having a contingency plan except for exploiting a loophole, then I have precisely no sympathy.
