Mostly agree but private forum "owners" aren't Gods & don't really own the forums

Right you are - if you don't like a private forum then move on,

I will say though, that my clear instructions from the WM when I ultimately agreed to have a private forum were that I had a responsibility to treat members decently and to answer their messages in a timely manner.  And that is by and large what I have tried to do.

And I will again make my point that the "owners" of private forum, are not Gods and do not really even own their forums.  They are granted those forums by the WM and are subject to having the forums moderated or even removed by him.  Perhaps to a certain extent, maybe even a very large extent, private forum "owners" can be asses, develop cult followings, promote only themselves and the items they sell - but ultimately there are limits - as we have seen more than once in the past.