I've moderated many online forums going waaaay back (farther than I'd like to admit actually). I agree with you, and I want to explain decisions to the users too, so I'll generally try to talk them as well. And sometimes we get a connection, and sometimes I realize I made a mistake. But in my experience, when they start playing lawyer, you're not going to please them.

I never thought about the four categories of mods before, but what you wrote feels pretty accurate. I think I'm in that first group, and I try to avoid issues by moderating as lightly as possible.

When I'm in other groups or communities, sometimes I think, "If someone did that in my group, they'd get one warning, then I'd just ban them the second time it happened. Boom. End of discussion." But I know that's likely not how it would go in reality. LOL