Stack Overflow seems mostly self-moderating to me. The vast majority of moderator actions are on posts that have already been downvoted and reported by regular

Stack Overflow seems mostly self-moderating to me. The vast majority of moderator actions are on posts that have already been downvoted and reported by regular users. SO could automate this human intervention. A moderator already isn't required for a post to be closed, it just takes 3 close votes from normal users. So then what is the purpose of the mods? They seem to prefer spending their time generating a constant stream of metadrama that has little to do with SO itself. See Monica, the code of conduct changes, modifying the design of the upvote/downvote buttons, Chat GPT... I think SO needs to scrap the mods and replace them with a small number of professional mods who they pay.