Having studied Psychology for 4 years, I can concur with yours, and your friends assessment, of what is happening on some of the Debate Forums here at CZ.
People will simply move away from the forums that are being censored, much like what happened when the Liver Flush debate forum was censored by the "everybody must conform to niceness" brigade, took it over. It is now a dead forum.
This new moderator wants to apply the same sort of censorship to other forums, and is doing so, they, in turn, will become dead forums.