I suspect many if not most of the victims would feel the same. There is a real consideration to make to victims who don't want to be part of or reason for any cruel punishments.
Most people - especially in America these days - live in tenuous circumstances, and "[finding] my bank account empty" would quite literally ruin their lives. For most people, that would be many times the provocation needed for them to feel justified in ruining a thief's life in exchange.
Editing bec I can't reply somehow:
The case you have was "tenuous circumstances"
I myself have experienced having my account cleaned out of a couple of thousand dollars (stolen/compromised ATM), and the bank had my funds back in 3 days. Pretty sure I won't be ruined in that time frame. Anybody who has 250k in the bank isn't living in tenuous Circumstances.
FDIC requires the government to pay you back for the insured (250k) amount but sets no timetable for this repayment. Simply, "as soon as possible." I've had several attorneys (that's what I get for marrying one) tell me explicitly that although the official FDIC policy is "as soon as possible" - which, granted, if you're a single point of failure (i.e., a small local bank) can be as soon as a few days - can be extended effectively indefinitely in cases where, for instance, a major bank fails, or several major banks are robbed concurrently.
Granted, you could sue for this, since you could argue that perhaps they're not moving as fast as they can be, but at that point you're not going to have the money to sue them with.
Now, if you have a solid job and money across several accounts under banks that are orthogonal with respect to being swindled, hey, you're OK. You'll hold out for the eventual repayment. If, on the other hand, you're in the same situation as most Americans these days, you had better hope that when you need the FDIC you're one of the exceptional few rather than part of a mob, because you could very well see your life derailed before you get your safety net back.
If someone didn't have family to fall back in, an empty bank account would literally ruin the life of the average American.
Here, the banks offer very limited credits, expecially to foreigners like me. Public health care and education is not great, to put it nicely. My family depends on my income but a bankruptcy would mean that I would lose my license to practise my profession, and so too my income would take a dip.
So, losing cash could mean that I would loose my profession, my home, car etc. There would be no more nice kindergartens, no nanny, no cleaning lady or private doctors for a long while. We would eat less, drink less, travel less etc. But that doesn't mean that my life would be ruined.
You're talking about eating less. You're talking about still being able to travel. I'm talking about a country where roughly one-sixth of its population would literally starve if this happened to them.
The first 4 you mention do not magically come for free in the U.S. You might retain the 5th, if you already had a job, and though you were nice enough to mention 'no physical injury' you somehow neglected 'no psychological injury'... though I can see why, since it would be untrue.
All of these things can hinge on having money.
2) If you're not in poverty, and your employer direct-deposits, all of the above, only you can change your direct deposit destination faster.