This is just baffling

Well, it is in the limitations of the game that you have be in front of the computer to play it. The maple client [should be] is made so it won't allow you to have a program do it for you (and the 100 attacks limit is there for that reason too).

No, it's not. That's an artificial limit posed by Nexon, not a true limit.
The 100 attack limit, that is an actual limit of the game.
The operating system is the ultimate arbiter of what is or isn't illegal input.

It's not hacking to bot, because if you make the operating system send the game commands that's not modifying the behavior of the client itself in any way, or even the operating system. They're both doing exactly what they're supposed to do. One is sending commands, one is accepting commands. Botting is not hacking unless you have to create a bypass to do it, or unless you have your bot using a hack.

They're two absolutely distinct concepts regardless of how you feel about either.

It's the difference between putting a brick on your car's gas peddle so it drives itself and modding your car to have a jet engine and wings. The first does nothing whatsoever to change the fundamental nature of your car, it just operates it without a person. The second is a clear and undeniable change to the basic nature of the car.