Shockingly, I don't see overly antagonistic mods on our blog. Rather, I see a certain subset of posters (who are very small) who like to push the envelopes and pick public battles with moderators for no other reason than they want to fight authority. In such experiences, I think the staff has showed remarkable tolerance. In general, attacks on moderators have been dealt with *less* harshly than attacks on other members.
If we banned or disciplined every member who ever criticized us, a lot of the people posting on the board today wouldn't be here, and threads like this wouldn't exist.
And of course, the idea that the staff is ban-happy or overly strict is something I don't see a lot of evidence for, either. Sure, we have fairly strict rules, but at the end of the day, we've probably banned 10 to 15 or so members (outside of spammers and trolls) in the past 5 years, and that may be an over-estimate.