It's interesting because I've seen a few American fans who don't really seem to understand this. There are two issues here.
The first is that the process for instituting a retrospective review is opaque. One person can elbow someone, it's not seen by the ref but there's no further action taken (generally because there is no media witch-hunt). Yet another can do it, the media is all over it and the consequence is a retrospective violent conduct charge. If clubs could request a review and that was the only way to initiate the process then we'd all know where we stand.
The second issue is that once the process has commenced there is little or no leeway. The 3-man panel has unanimously (and supposedly independently of one another) agreed that a red card would have been the correct outcome. For violent conduct that's almost certainly a 3-match ban.
"Good for business" doesn't come into it. In fact it's usually what benefits the rags or England. So Rooney, wearing an England shirt, deliberately kicks an opponent and is rightly sent off. He gets a 3-game ban but the FA appeal and it's reduced to 2.
The PL head, Richard Scudamore, has even openly admitted that the rags being out if the top four is bad for business.