I'm not so sure. My completely anecdotal experience across communities on many platforms is that users love to say "I'm gonna quit!", then never do it, but when mods say that they mean it. I can't recall any times I've seen a mod come back, but plenty of times where it's led to cascading resignations (if it wasn't a coordinated "mic drop" in the first place)

The currency of good moderation is respect, and if you tell a mod you don't need them, there's a high chance of them calling your bluff

You could well be right, as it sounds like the trust between the mods and admins is gone. The main mod of r/apple has quit at least.

It sounded like they were willing to remove the mods and let the forums pick new ones