To punish or not to punish?

Same concept, different context?

A New York Times article, Biden Administration Retreats on Threat to Withhold Arizona Relief Funds, raises the question. Despite Arizona using aid money to undercut school mask mandates, the Treasury sent $2.1 billion in pandemic aid anyway. That came after a federal warning warning that the aid might be withheld for Arizona fighting against measures to deal with COVID. 

Don't punish and send the aid

Sending aid is a no-brainer. By sending aid, the government signals it is trying to be reasonable. Sending aid signals there is no ill-will and Americans are all in this together. The federal government is not the aggressive tyranny that the radical right constantly paints it to be. This is an open gesture of unity and trust. Acts like this slowly build trust and good will.

Punish, don't send the aid

Not sending aid is a no-brainer. By sending aid, the government signals it is weak and unconcerned about wasting tax dollars on unjustifiable, stubborn stupidity. Arizona committed irrational acts that directly undermines public health. Arizona's irresponsible acts unjustifiably killed some and caused others to suffer from serious long-term diseases. Sending the aid signals capitulation to an aggressive brand of anti-democratic, anti-science culture and politics that can reasonably be called theocratic fascism. Signals of unity are ignored and change no minds that believe the federal government is tyrannical. Appeasing Arizona is similar to (a lot like?) Neville Chamberlain[1] trying to appease the intractable tyrant of his time.

Qs: Should Biden have sent the aid? Is sending the aid an insult to people who believe in trying to reasonably defend public health on the basis of science (not politics, tribe or culture)? 

Footnote: 

1. Arthur Neville Chamberlain (1869 – 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, ceding the German-speaking Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler. Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which marked the beginning of the Second World War, Chamberlain announced the declaration of war on Germany two days later and led the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the war until his resignation as prime minister on 10 May 1940.