There are times when the reins on the forum need to be tightened, and times when they need to be slackened. My observation over the years is that JimRob & the Mods exercise this flexibility quite well, albeit not perfectly.
Before criticizing the mods, please ask yourself this: how would YOU perform if YOU were in charge of the ZAP button?
I don't need an answer to this. But if you are honest with yourself, I suspect that you'd admit to being as "unfair" with that power as I would be. It takes remarkable restraint to resist zapping commentary that one simply disagrees with, although it is a necessary function to delete that which clearly crosses the "line".