Trying to play both the roles of staff and pvper in this response might get a little tricky for me, but here it goes.
90% of my game play for the past 7 years has been pvp related. I have met several people, and been in numerous guilds across many servers. Over the course of my pvp career, I have had my fair share of griefing done towards me either on the forums, in game, and in two cases in real life. Being a female doesn't help matters.... not that gender really has to do with anything game related, however women do take a great deal of extreme cyber bullying for no other reason than being female. I won't break down the psychology of it, but it really is a thing. After everything I have been called, heard, and seen, I can honestly say that I do not get bothered by anything anyone behind a computer throws at me. But at the same time, it wouldn't be fair of me to assume that just because I have an immunity towards the shenanigans then everyone else should as well. People are unique, personalities are unique, and everything effects everyone differently. It would be wrong for me to assume otherwise or mock them for being offended.
My love for PvP is undisputed, to spite the harassment that comes with my little hobby. But I will say this.... anytime I have been in a guild where victories leads to insults smeared all over general chat, and even followed to stratics, the PvP activity on the server dies. People lose ambition to try. The pvp is no longer fun to them. Why should they go and try something new just to be laughed out of fel, and called worthless? They won't do it again, and we now have one less future pvper. So while I can personally appreciate and understand a little prodding and bragging, I have also seen what it can do to the community. In a perfect world I think if everyone came, fought, and kept their mouths shut there would be more fights. There is no sense in demoralizing people.
So that makes it easier for me to moderate things on Stratics that are obviously not constructive and only serving to demoralize people. So no, the mods haven't grown soft or more strict. We are players also and we all have a love for the game. Thats why we do what we can to protect everyone involved, even the 2 people whos skin might be too thin. That's why we have the rules and try to be neutral. Maybe in the end it won't make a huge difference to the majority, but to a few it means everything.