Do you buy or sell upvotes?

Steemit's FAQ clearly says:

What is considered spam or abuse?
Selling or offering to buy votes/resteems/follows, or schemes that facilitate this.

Aside from that, this type of activity undermines the platform as a whole.

• Doesn't violating a rule undermine it and all of the other rules on the book?
• Doesn't weak enforcement lead to the spotty application of rules and open the way to abuse of power?
• If there's an exception, who grants the exception? Also how and why? Is the process transparent?
• Is there any third-party verification/auditing of how these types of earnings are spent?