You're missing the obvious: it is the lying that is unethical. Now we're talking about people choosing to use a novel tool to lie en masse. What you're saying is like chastising the horrified onlookers during a firebombing of a city, calling them merely jealous of how much better an arsonist the bomber plane is than any of them.
the ethics committee of the university is supposed to have control of the ethics of its researchers. remember when a research group tried to backdoor the Linux kernel with poisoned patches? it's absolutely correct to raise hell with the university so they give a more forceful reprimand.
