My personal opinion is that insults are fine to be thrown around. It's something I had while growing up in video games and online video games. General smack talk and venting was something the just happened, and I never saw it a bad thing so long as it wasn't something uncalled for and horrible (go kill yourself being a prime example of this). I suppose the difference comes in what I say is acceptable and, say, what you (whoever is reading) is acceptable so it's kind of a grey area if we took this approach.
The reason I was okay with it was because there were always ways to remove it, and I always went with the easiest solution at the lowest level and escalated my response based on the the situation. "Go kill yourself" was always a report. "Uninstall n00b" was a mute depending on how much of a bad mood I was in, or just moving on (if the harassment continued with alternate characters/accounts/loop holes I reported). Even now, the most I report anyone for is negative attitude and that just depends on if they were being a dick all game or if they just said a mean thing and moved on.
Thing is, Riot kinda punishes (most of the time it seems) based on if a person is repeatedly being an asshole, and not just a one time dick move. If you vented one time, chances are you won't have anything done to you, or you may get a warning, but anyone who is just a dick cause "LOLWHYNOT", they are going to be nerfed. We see it time and time again on the boards.
I agree with the OP, people's actions should be met more quickly and harshly than words (especially with the example he gave). But that would mean that trolls, or at least the less clever trolls, will be taken out.
