I don't think there was ever any transparency and I think the moderating system is pretty similar to that of NeoGaf back in the day. People left NeoGaf not because of disagreements with mod behavior, but because the owner of the site was accused of sexual misconduct that he wouldn't own up to and wanted buried.
I always had my differences with how NeoGaf was moderated, and this website, but this website never promised anything different. My biggest frustration is with locked threads, OPs requesting their threads to get locked when they get clowned on (and Mods locking them), and then the use of bans instead of warnings. I think warnings are more effective than bans, but w/e.
It's not enough for me to care really. I haven't followed what the latest disagreements are over, but I don't think that there was ever the promise of transparency; this site was, seemingly, less transparent than NeoGaf by the very nature of it: It started as an invite-only Discord chat group and if you didn't "know someone," you wouldn't get invited, and then you were unlikely to make the jump over here early on. That's the antithesis of transparency.
FWIW, I think the mods at NeoGaf were slightly more power-trippy than the mods here, but I dunno if that's entirely true. I'd imagine there's a fair amount of crossover between NeoGaf mods and mods at this site, and the culture carried over. I say this mostly in that I don't think I've ever gotten a ban here, maybe a short one or a warning, but usually it was for going to far arguing with someone where I probably was being an ass. I used to not be able to let arguments go, and I'm better at just not caring anymore.