(if PDV was saying ’it’s strategically adviseable to assume the worst reason, that’s… plausible, and would lead me to respond differently.)
Making it easier to get away with bad behavior is bad in itself, because it reduces trust and increases the bad behavior’s payoff, even if no bad behavior was occurring before. It’s also corrosive to any norm that exists against the bad behavior, because “everyone’s getting away with this except me” becomes a plausible hypothesis whether or not anyone actually is.
I interpret PDV’s comments as an attempt to implicitly call attention to these problems, but I think explicitly spelling them out would be more more likely to be well-received on this particular forum.
Making it easier to get away with bad behavior is bad in itself, because it reduces trust and increases the bad behavior’s payoff, even if no bad behavior was occurring before. It’s also corrosive to any norm that exists against the bad behavior, because “everyone’s getting away with this except me” becomes a plausible hypothesis whether or not anyone actually is.
I interpret PDV’s comments as an attempt to implicitly call attention to these problems, but I think explicitly spelling them out would be more more likely to be well-received on this particular forum.