This has been a thing for a while. GAF is not a democracy and does not purport to be.
And it's great exactly how it is. I would say there is no room for improvement and there is no alternative approach that would be superior. I have no problems at all with this forum's suppression of criticism. Were we allowed to openly discuss the occasionally questionable moderation, the structure of this forum would be compromised and we'd all be worse off for it.
Smiley90 will suffer his ban and return a better man. I know my 16 bans are responsible for my clean and dependable thoughts toward this forum.