"Ban me here & now if you truly think you are the voice of this community." They didn't, and finally gave me the biggest reveal of them all.
Their justification. "We're just doing our jobs, that's all." Though they hold power, they're not the ones who call the shots, the close circles are, just as I predicted. Whatever close circles tell them, they will do.
The one outlier in the group was Tatsuru, who tried to play the "you're nothing"-card in my face. Perhaps he might be the one responsible for fanning the flames with the bannings of people associated with WS on MB. He's also from 2.1 era if I recall, and one of the many people whose allegiances I do not know.