If they thought they'd lose, then they'd have the penalty on top of the loss. It's an interesting point.
^^that
I just played a bo5 in trainer of what my match vs majofa was supposed to be (AI played my deck, I played majofa's), and aether deck won 3-2 with 3 of the matches being decided by cointoss.
While I'm sure my deck was favored to win, it was in no way a counter, and RNG surely could have changed the outcome. Plus you felt it was better to give us free aether salvage, the team that everyone hates, the general that everyone hates, because everything about aether is OP. Very interesting.
I think you didn't ask to replay because you thought that rules wouldn't allow it. If one of my teammates played a wrong deck for an entire match, I would consider that 0-5 or 0-3 without hesitation. It wouldnt have even have crossed my mind to ask WM for penalty and replay, even if our real deck was a counter to whatever they brought.
On a side note, I completely misread the rules for grandmaster battle vs Root. I guess I could have asked for a replay of sorts, but I would never even consider that after having started and almost completing the match. Root became grandmaster because I made an honest mistake, and there was no point in arguing it from my perspective.