Kluger and Jospeh: You cannot learn the severity of an aveirah from the punishment. This is clear from multiple places in the Torah – I’ll suffice with two examples here:
One: One who gives all his kids to Molech evades punishment, while one who gave only part gets killed, even though clearly one who gave all is worse.
Two: Being bo’el a goy is seemingly ad’rabbanan (at least based on the punishment), but its considered worse than being bo’el a niddah.
Thus, in Torah thought, the punishment shows no outlook on the severity of the crime.
Furthermore, the Rambam writes that one who is going to be me’aness a woman (or anyone, really) against her will is a rodef and anyone can kill her, which makes the prohibition among the most severe in the Torah. One going to steal or be mazik is not a rodef, but one going to molest is. Obviously, a molester is on par with a murderer.
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