There's an endless supply of people who want to moderate forums and are happy to do so for free even if they don't get to set the rules or operate as a dictator

There's an endless supply of people who want to moderate forums and are happy to do so for free even if they don't get to set the rules or operate as a dictator. The moderators who consider the lack of "a sense of ownership" a deal breaker are precisely the people you don't want as moderators. They're the ones who are likely interested in that power for the sake of abusing it to serve their own personal agenda rather than the good of the community. It's no different from why we don't want cops to be able to make their own laws (and why laws that are vague enough to give them discretion to act capriciously are bad laws).