This forum is in no way more special than say any other forum with the exception of historical associations to Bitcoin and crypto in general as well as being unique in the amount of money it generates.
For example, in any of the names it adopted before the current it was where Satoshi posted therefore it has been called a library and a reference for the work of Satoshi. If theymos were to ban signature campaigns, the forum would lose almost all members and it would drift in to obscurity (except for the library and reference analogy).
As for cosmetics, the forum was due an upgrade many years ago and it is clearly lagging behind.
Are you guys seriously getting your heads around a decentralised forum? Forums are things of the past and those that survive are because they were launched and were successful in the past. I think the only thing that hasn't completely killed them is that a lot of people forum during quiet times at work.
Also the reason BTT survived?
I think BTT is just special and maybe some things like signature campaign has been a key to keeping here going.
The reason forums got outdated could be because of lack of the modern day UI/UX amongst other things.