Reasonable enough, because after reading the op, I was beginning to wonder if moderators have the power to edit a user's post or comment even till this day, that would have been really really nice 😁 ~ sarcasm
Yep, that's the crux of the issue, I think. If moderators can edit posts, then there is probably no (worthwhile) mystery to solve here.
I regret my wording in the OP because it reads like I'm taking the existence of moderator editing for granted.
If someone can confirm that posts being edited by anyone but the author is normal around here (or was normal back in the day) then I'll lock this topic.
