You're more right than you probably know. I've been a moderator on other forums and when someone who was ordinarily level headed took an illogical position on a topic, wouldn't budge a millimetre and argue with everyone over it, with the odd exception of just someone getting their jollies being an antisocial troll, we'd typically find that there was a monetary interest involved. Put the ban hammer on the more disruptive ones, timeouts for others to see if they'd settle down. I have no doubt that's what's going on around here too.