a case on which the academy is silent is the tendency described in point b1. it is perfectly common in educated speech in many parts of the world to distinguish between "no quería molestarlo" "i did not mean to bother him" and "no quería molestarle" "i did not mean to bother you". those spaniards who would not just say "le" anyway for the reasons explained in the last paragraph are likely to use "le" in this case. butt & benjamin (1994) says that their argentine informants made this distinction, whereas their "loísta" colombian informants preferred "molestarlo" always.