The entire point of making a community and being a moderator is to establish a rule set and to use the tools available to you to run the community. If you don’t like how they do things, go make your own and run it in your idyllic, naïve way.

Askhistorians works because it’s ruthless. Yet do you see people complaining about “power tripping mods” over there? No, it’s considered one of the best subs if not the best. The quality is virtually unmatched. And that’s because they have a very firm, decisive hand. This whole “power tripping Jannie” caricature is simply propagated by people who get banned from communities for not following basic rules and etiquette. If you don’t like the community, leave Make your own. It’s very easy to do that on Lemmy, Reddit, wherever you go. The best, longest lasting communities are typically heavier with their moderation than the baseline. And the ones that are too lenient barely make it a year.