I was hit with a permaban and had my account restored after the case was overturned. And yes, it said "You have been permanently suspended". No, it was not a "bluff". I was hit with a zero-to-permaban punishment and Riot later decided that whoever pulled the trigger on that was blatantly wrong.
If one believes that the case has been truly mis-handled or otherwise incorrectly punished, it is not unreasonable to make one's case through the support ticket system. I do agree that it is nonsense to argue the case on the boards..... though it may be confusing to new players given that this is the "Player behavior & moderation" board .