I don't even remember when I was myself banned. It's a very 'shaped' subreddit, and not just on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/4460492/ghislaine-maxwell-reddi...
But the power moderators and their anonymity are certainly a huge legitimacy problem. There are subreddits that are more important in shaping opinions than the New York Times or Washington Post, and the people controlling discussion in them are anonymous.
It's hard to underestimate how enormous a problem this is.