Pointlessly snarky comments are one of the worst parts of Reddit and Lemmy and I fully support mods putting a stop to that. I guess the important part is to be transparent about it

"Annoying" is subjective, and there is no rule against being perceived as being "annoying" in the community rules.

The only rule is to be respectful, which they did not follow at all, then tried to hide it.

Response to edit: yes, it was edited after it was brought up. The modlog is public, there's no need for me to try to hide anything like they tried to do. If you're going to try to give me shit for that, why do they get a free pass?

The "down" was definitely edited after the fact.

Whether you consider it whining, depends upon the tone you read it in.

I just read that comment and didn't feel annoyed enough to even give a downvote and the mod's reply seemed far too annoying.

The username on the other hand...

Mod abuse is mod abuse, regardless of the level. They clearly felt embarrassed for needlessly being mean and getting caught for it after trying to hide the fact.

Then they tried to excuse it on their mastodon.

If they're willing to go through all that for something so minor, they would absolutely be willing to do the same to hide worse behavior.

Probably decided “fuck this” and quit volunteering instead of dealing with drama llamas.

Pointing something out is not inherently being a dick. It did not warrant the response, particularly a response that clearly breaks the rules of the community they were trusted with the responsibility to manage.