I'm also curious how you got that many of non-existent posts
It's related to the Moved threads. I have often not left them, but due to my high activity whilst moderating their count must have been high.
I don't know if that's true (I think it is), but, according to hilarious, "all staff can delete or trashcan a thread as long as it is in their jurisdiction".
Jurisdiction means: Section that they moderate. If you look closely, a single moderator couldn't do much in his "personal vendetta" conquest.
In fact, I don't see anything wrong with preventing such situations from happening before they actually come around since everything happens for the first time one day. Basically, it is just a matter of time.
It has never happened, and in expectancy of it happening once we should do this? Seems to be the opposite of normalcy bias.