I like the idea of changing out moderation to a subscription system where you can 'subscribe' to specific moderators and moderators you dont like you can ignore. Ignored mod changes do not get propogated to your view. Default moderators can remain a popularity contest but at least this provides a release valve for all the completely unchecked corruption that happens in these mod teams and lets people fix the problem on an individual and eventually group basis.
This would allow people to control who controls what they see rather than have moderators just materialize in these positions and be all-powerful for all time as they rot from corruption.
There isn't anywhere else where anonymous entities control discussion with this kind of influence, and it's leading, as we see with /r/worldnews, with /r/politics, etc., to large-scale political manipulation and manipulation of national sentiments.
The effect they've achieved is probably greater than what has been achieved with LLMs etcetera.