Again the abstract argument for price gouging is really good ... provided that you assume everyone has roughly the same amount of money. It often catastrophically fails in a market far from egalitarian wealth distributions. This is why gouging AND looting are both good. https://twitter.com/mungowitz/status/1238442332313333761 …
Technically, for looting to be an effective solution to distribution problems, it still has to cost something, and the way it costs something is traditionally through legal penalty. Not saying existing penalties are proportionate or reasonable, of course.