I see your point and agree that it's a "thin line" to tread but when looking at it from a management perspective, it makes a hell of a lot of sense financially to send the message to one well known person to keep a whole bunch of sheep in line. In this case, the government spent money wisely. Snipes has paid them at least $15 million to date and I doubt the prosecution cost that much. Compare that to going after a whole buncha Cletus P. Rutherford's for $20-$30K at a loss of prosecution capital per.
I'm more disturbed that they're wasting jail space on a non-violent offender. I think it'd have been smarter to give the guy 6000 hours of community service, a long probation, and house arrest.