In regards to Niki, he was unaware it was staff information to begin with + the origination of the "leak" was in question. Josh's initial ban dealt with sheer chance while the latter half was almost entirely handled by Soul. I don't know anything about Sept's case; however, I know users who have been banned accordingly to the rule (i.e. Seraphic) and the ban duration generally comes down to the staff member affected and overall information leaked.
I am fine with it being re-worded slightly, but I still think the 6 month ban should remain; however, it does not need to be the end-all-be-all. These offenses directly involve staff member(s) and the rule is there to set a punishment per its occurrence (rather than simply "staff discretion"). While this punishment may be set (6 months), the overall offense/how it occurred/and the staff member in questions attitude towards the offense will affect the overall outcome. If a Sythe member leaks a staff members x, but the staff member does not care and does not want the user banned for 6 months, they won't be; however, if a Sythe member leaked x and the staff member does care and there is no rule solidifying it, it will become a "the punishment is unfair! "They don't like them!" Etc.
In this case, Soul and Josh had a discussion and they agreed to the punishment which Josh also offered this up in his initial dispute. This situation is not the norm and was an agreement that was made between Soul and Josh which I reiterated on the thread per a reference ever being needed. This agreement being that if Josh were to leak staff information again, there would be zero tolerance, and he would be perm banned.
Tl;dr: each case is unique and it should be handled as such; however, there is a codified rule to refer to as a basis of punishment.