I don’t think a good solution exists except to keep those games to locked down consoles only.
But maybe a more transparent appeals process could help, even if it gets expensive.
Other people like to play competitive games, do you have another option other than anti cheat?
They didn't ban people for using win7, they detected something that ran on win7 only. Where is this grandstanding? They've had false bans before and they reverse false bans now and then no? Usually it's a group that is banned so pretty obvious when a bunch of people starts complaining.
Or another way to look at it is, you CAN do whatever you want with the software on your computer. But Valve can do whatever they want with the software on THEIR computers. They have no obligation to network with you.
Carrying your request even further, you're sort of saying websites cannot moderate content because that interferes with your ability to use your browser freely.
And admittedly their grandstanding of "VAC is always right, we never make mistakes and bans cannot and will not be reversed" hits a nerve, because that is just a blatant lie.
They actually banned players for using Windows 7, and now they're doing it again to AMD users. Both were obvious mistakes on their end.