I've run into some heavy handed moderation too. Mine has usually been about my post not meeting some guideline, but not to the point of me personally getting banned. Sadly, every time a post is rejected, the mods just double-down when I state my case. They tend to pull my posts when they start to become popular.

In really large subreddits, I feel like very few people get to contribute. My posts are not usually any different in scope or theme than the ones that are accepted. So it's made me start thinking that the big subreddits there are approved contributors and most of us rank and file folks are reduced to reading/commenting only.

Dude, it's a Reddit mod. The peak of god complex online.