Great stuff - personally I'd argue that the moderation is rarely that overzealous, just occasionally a bit inconsistent. I've got no idea what the rules are on posting links to places who sell videogames, for example, are any more. A few things on the forums need clarifying.
Have you considered (do you already?) moderating the hardware forums differently to places such as GD and the games forums? Generally the hardware forums are much more factual, and people have genuine requests for advice, whereas GD is much more banter-focussed.
All such things are been taken into consideration and people who break rules like hot linking images, or signatures etc. we shall be looking into improved methods of dealing with such offences, its all in hand but will take time.
