Sure. They can't be controlled because they do it without monetary payments. But it's not a good thing that they can't be controlled when a sub gets to a certain size.
At some point, large subreddits become important to the internet and they outgrow the moderators.
You know how some founders are great when the startup is small but is completely incompetent when the startup grows and scales? Then VCs bring in "adults" to run the larger startup? Yea. It happens on subreddits too but founding moderators can't be kicked out as far as I know.
> They can't be controlled because they do it without monetary payments
... from reddit. Some are probably being paid by organizations, businesses, or even countries. And others might be monetizing their sub-reddit in some way (e.g. some of the crypto or investing sub-reddits).
All the more reason to create a more democratic and transparent system.
When crypto scams and exchanges were failing left and right, mods for official crypto exchange subreddits were deleting and censoring posts or shutting the subreddit down completely - leaving no place for bag holders to communicate and coordinate with each other.
Heck, even on HN, we could use a more democratic and transparent system. Right now, I'm convinced that HN blocks selective negative posts about Y Combinator.
At some point, large subreddits become important to the internet and they outgrow the moderators.
You know how some founders are great when the startup is small but is completely incompetent when the startup grows and scales? Then VCs bring in "adults" to run the larger startup? Yea. It happens on subreddits too but founding moderators can't be kicked out as far as I know.