It still makes sense. They went bankrupt (because they literally ran out of money, they could no longer process withdrawals and billions was missing, it got put into receivership, and good to best outcome was achieved. This is not vindication of SBF or FTX, they sunk and were saved

I agree comparisons aren't useful - but consider the fact that Madoff screwed over accredited investors, institutions and generally very rich people. SBF messed with customer deposits of a million retail investors - he was going to be made an example of.