For all intents and purposes, booby traps are illegal 100% of the time regardless of the reason for their construction or the damage they cause. A booby trap that squirts water is as illegal as one that fires bullets, and one that misses someone is as illegal as one that hits someone (although hitting someone opens you up to other charges but unrelated to the booby trap).
This is a pretty good example of arguing from the way you feel like the law should be written rather than how it's actually written.
Just to be clear - this is not really up to judgment or interpretation, you are just completely wrong. So I wouldn't do anything based on this (very incorrect) reading of law.
I believe your summary of that Reddit comment is overly-broad: he admitted two of the videos involved a friend-of-a-friend volunteer that he was "unaware" had staged the theft. The thread then goes on to do some heavy extrapolating based on that thin evidence.
This is a pretty good example of arguing from the way you feel like the law should be written rather than how it's actually written.
Just to be clear - this is not really up to judgment or interpretation, you are just completely wrong. So I wouldn't do anything based on this (very incorrect) reading of law.