Hidden discussion are and always will be used to hide unethical decisions.
Regardless of if it's revealed to the public or dealt with privately, we moderators aren't immune from punishment if we act out of line, or don't do our jobs. Not all user's infractions are made public either, but they still get in trouble anyway.

Yes counterproductive cause in pm they can just ignore you... and do what ever they want... not have to actually handle the issue...
Few if any of the mods really have a "me > you" attitude. If you politely address an infraction with them, I'm fairly sure you'll get a response. But if you send them a pm saying something like, "ur stoopid like potato" then chances are it'll probably be ignored, sure. You can always bring it up with a higher up too, if you feel it was really unfair.

Mods are not just 'average players' they are official representatives, and when Mods say something is so, average players figure the are getting a factual statement about game rules or mechanics.
Not true. Liaisons are the actual official representatives. Moderators are just players that double over as volunteer forum workers. It's a common misconception that we moderators are representatives of Evony (and some of us do try to watch what we say because of that), but in truth, we represent nothing at all.