I'm not sure you ticked someone off who reported you vs. tripped an automated check on FB's end that looks at new accounts that use old account identities, and locks them as suspicious (in case they were hacked, or someone trying to steal someone's identity) which is why they request the additional authentication via photo...
I "deleted" my original account via facebook's deletion mechanism. Then, six months later I created another account with the same email address and received a different account (the url to my profile was different).
I commented with this account for a few weeks before getting into a heavy argument with a Trump supporter in a comments thread who even accused me of being a fake account because I had no picture uploaded.
Not saying your scenario isn't plausible, just unlikely.
