Mods are power creep because they’re like digital overlords, lording over online realms without pay, feeding off the authority they amass while others do the grunt work. It’s a virtual power trip
While I do agree power hungry people will try to find and abuse power in any position available, I disagree that it’s a natural byproduct of being a mod. I think most mods are like that before being a mod and many currently aren’t like that. Upvotes for actual unpopular opinion.
IMO it pretty much entirely depends on who each moderator is as a person - I think most of the ones you’ll encounter on Lemmy are just normal users who want our communities to remain an abuse-free and spam-free zone, with content adhering to the rules.
Outside of that framework, the users are pretty much the authority IMO… they’re bringing in the content and the conversation
I think most of the people you’re talking about become mods because they’re power hungry, instead of being power hungry because they’re mods. I would say most mods are just normal people wanting to help out in their own way. I understand it may not seem that way if you’ve had bad experiences, though.