Is it a hardship for a player to not play in a bowl game because the school they picked cheats?
The only difference I see actually is in Gilman's case the DOD change could have impacted him financially in terms of millions of dollars. In the case of a Patterson, he would not be impacted from being drafted in the slightest.
IMO the only reason whatsoever the NCAA denied Gilman was optics. They were most likely afraid of political backfire which 100% would have followed in today's media climate. I'm sure Fox News has a couple posts all queued up somewhere in the event Gilman would have been given the waiver.