I'm getting the impression here that is the inescapable result of what lemmy.ml has been trying to be and how it positioned itself. By trying to not be too hard on potential libs and chuds (like not clamping down on misogyny, transphobia, etc. hard enough, and stuff like thinking being federated with loli instances is acceptable) because when you care more about growing the platform, you attract a lot of garbage. This kind of garbage can seep into the mod team. If you then have admins who feel like they no have choice but to defend this monstrosity they've created, you're in deep trouble.