A case can be made for Woods withdrawing I suppose, but as your USGA friend said, the case for DQ is not there. I don’t think Jack would have withdrawn, certainly not Sam Snead or Player either. And sure has heck not Trevino.
The case for a DQ is absolutely there. The committee used rule 33 to make an exception for to a mandatory DQ.
It was clearly a judgement call. It was within the rules to make an exception for Tiger in this case, but absolutely not mandatory.