This is not the first situation I've dealt with of sock abuse*, though I won't give the others any recognition by naming names. However, given that WP:CSD draws a clear distinction between indefinitely blocked and banned, and since banning is effectively a "Wikipedia death penalty", I wanted to make sure of the situation and community's collective opinion before tagging him as banned.
I do see your point, and I agree in this case that this user has exhausted the community's patience - and that yes, formally now, but informally before, he is banned.
* I need to reread the banning policy and the list of bans, since the user I was thinking of is on the community ban list. —'''''' (talk)