I don't think the delay thing really applies in the first place if there's no input from the user involved. One keypress, one action right? No keypresses...well, if I finish that, nearly every addon there is would be illegal. Policy towards actions which must be user-initiated and towards actions which can be taken using the API is necessarily different to some extent since they make that distinction in the first place.

While you could stretch "malicious" that far, and we've seen companies try to do similar...it's really far-fetched. At this point I feel more than confident enough to keep using it, especially since I know of no one being banned for programmatic delays in addons - which appear to be common - not even by hearsay. The intent is also only to workaround a bug in the game - random follow dropping. And if they're going to stretch "malicious" that far, nothing I do is going to be safe anyway, so I might as well not worry.

Barring any potential combination of API functions that allows for actual automation (which they seem to have thoroughly purged for the time being), or using it for things like spamming or harassment which would get you a vacation anyway...I don't see a risk. I don't think that the delays possible within the API framework are themselves automation of the negative sort, any more than running the script is in the first place. It necessarily automates the execution of that script...but that's not at all the same as the thing that gets you banned. The kind that gets you banned is the actual automation of your character such that it can play without human intervention - aka botting.