Possibly. Power is just representing others via. their trust in you. Trust can be earned, purchased, or stolen.
I don’t think the blahaj admins bought their users off. I also don’t think they oppress them. I can only reasonably conclude their doing what they think is right.
If the users agree, stay on the instance, and are happy there’s not really any discussion to be had.
I like the instance and it sucks to see it defederate period. I can’t really say what reasons are right or wrong universally, except for criminal stuff. IMO.
It does make sense. I wonder if the admins checked to see how many users (were) subscribed to nsfw? Not that a subscription equals a content consumer, but it’s a strong indicator.