"Can Ignore Quota" problem

[biome.pat]

Hey folks!

I've got an infraction level set where I turn the inbox size down to zero so that PM-ing is disabled. They can still see their messages, they just can't send any. I assumed moderators would still be able to send them messages, since I've allowed them to ignore message quotas, but they get the same error as regular users:

testuser2 has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her.

If you are trying to send this message to multiple recipients, remove testuser2 from the recipient list and send the message again.

I wouldn't think this was so confusing if it weren't for the fact that I can still send the "punished" user PMs, just not the mods.

Is this a bug, or intended for some reason?

I think this thread talks about the same issue, but it's unclear what the conclusion was...