"Punishment" is on a scale. Some Punishments can even be turned into benefits if you're clever.
Case in point, one way of handling this would be Renxiang "Volunteering" us (Who has little else to do) to help collect rarer and more difficult materials that are ordinarily beyond what a Production-track Disciple has access to, allowing them to put together a solid response through superior materials, even if they've lost time. We can benefit from this as a ready source of EPC successes and any materials that aren't required.