I’ve been wondering about sandboxing for some time now. If I understand it correctly, players are put in a time-out, where they can play but not compete on the leaderboards? Is that right? Why are they allowed to play at all? Shouldn’t punishment mean banning? Or is that an escalation from sandboxing? Can anyone shed light on this?
why would you keep playing though if you are sandbox there is almost no reason.
I’d say because those players are also likely to be the type to spend $$$ on the game so D3 doesn’t want to lose any customer even if they are cheaters. It’s all about the benjamins.
Trying to minimize refunds/chargebacks, maybe.
I progress so slowly, sometimes I feel like I’m sandboxed. 
That I get, as a testing ground. But as a “punishment” it seems lacking.
I’m pretty sure that would be the opposite of being sandboxed.
I believe you win all the events if you are sandboxed and get all the prizes.
So you get all of the toys, you just have to play by yourself?
It kinda sounds like a weird corrupted genie wish.
You win every bracket. You never get attacked. You progress up as high as you want without any fallbacks, and win every match.
But you’ll forever be by yourself. A victory in a bracket of one.
Yes but it would be non-competitive like a majority of the playerbase wishes. There would be no stress, just play game whenever you want to without worrying about losing your “place”.. Kind of like the Original Puzzle Quest 
You also lose alliance membership and benefits.
It does seem a bit of a light punishment, but the most important part is that honest players no longer have to compete with or get attacked by the dishonest ones.
One reason might be that it is possible to be sandboxed without being a cheater. It’s happened three times to me (iOS), and I worked with David Moore to get it resolved. If you hoard too much ISO you can be auto-flagged by the system, and then it’s into the sandbox for you.
BINGO! And your prize for getting it right is . . . an up vote! 
Yes, because such a level of transgression against the MP community should warrant death, decapitation and castration (in that order?) 
And a purple nurple or two for truly egregious transgressions.
A Sanboxed player doesn’t mean he’s a cheater, some just had too much iso on day and their account got sandboxed and they decided to stay that way if you don’t complain to D3 about it.
Being Sandboxed is MPQ paradise, No pressure from alliance, no retaliation in pvp, no need to spend on shield, I mean, nothing to complain about.
And they don’t win every event unless they cheat. 
It honestly sounds like the best version of the game LOL.
Like first no competing for covers,
No dumping HP,
Playing when you’d like
I’m assuming you just auto win first every event.
Thats when the actual game play matters instead of the hub bub around it. Challening events would be fun, not doing a boosted node over and over because you want top 100, but doing them once for enjoyment.
But anyway yeah your question answered.
Also theres not really a great way to ban from a game. If someone was banned, whats stopping them from making a new account? linking to a new facebook? Making a different steam name?
More important what’s to be gained for you, the player, when someone else is banned over them being sandboxed.
i don’t understand the autowin first comments. no chance in heck pve is autowin - ever. i know pvp would be tons easier with no need to shield and no hits coming in, but just the sheer number of matches it would take to hit the typical first place scores (2K+) would probably be more than casual play would provide. the disinterest that would begin (for me) with not being in an alliance and not really competing against others would only increase the casualness with which i played. if sandboxed, you’d be free to bot your way to unlimited hp/iso and have the roster of your dreams. and after a few events, then what? what is left to play for? no thanks.
Actually it’s amazing. But it requires a warped world view.
The purpose of cheating is normally to get an advantage over people so you can beat them. But now you can’t. You have all your ill gotten gains and nobody can see how good you are. It doesn’t matter.
I know running between the PvP foxholes of 750 points and 1000 points is a nightmare with mines and barbed wire and both sides shooting wildly. It has at times risked me testing the aerodynamics of my tablet. But then look at PvP without it - if I just play 30 matches I get the covers. And the #1 prize. There is no actual sense of achievement in the game anymore because nothing is challenging. I can get #1 in PvE by completing one node. Why play any more than one?
It ruins the game for you. And it forces you to delete it yourself in despair.
(There may also be a legal thing where they don’t take anything you purchased off you, they just stop you from playing with others anymore. So your legal recourse may be extremely limited)
I admit, I am kinda curious that if somebody is sandboxed for non-legit reasons, and is un-sandboxed after, do they get to keep the covers and HP from all their first place finishes in the meantime? 
Sounds like a good way to get some covers.