That should be the only time you comment on ban appeals period. Only when the mod wants a non staff's opinion the mod can link the video to the banned player and can review the video them selves i don't think any of the mods are blind. There are other mods the mod thats doing the appeal can ask for opinion.
there're other mods that look at the videos/appeals also and if the hacker gets unbanned chance of them getting banned in the next week is very high.
Not all mods are on at once you know :P. Ive been banned 4 times for hacks... I stopped and got to learn how to pvp well. I had 4 reports on me after I stopped hacking. Did I get banned? No. Its trust and should be no bias.