Symphony D.
Deity
A moderator can't generally just change the rules on a whim without explaining the change to the players and providing some sort of reason--he is answerable to them in altering those rules, or else they'll be pissy and possibly leave. And yes, that is the main power of a player no matter the degree of rules present. The logic's called "My way or the highway," and in fact several NES have had no real effective stats, ie: the first one, unless you count those entries as "stats" in the very loosest sense of the word (as they're more just facts).Only the MOD makes the rules/stats (which gives him back all of the power vested in them) and the players can only check this by leaving. A NES without rules would attract no actual players either. Then they could simply "identify" or rather "cheer" on one faction or other while the story progressed at the MOD's own whim.
The moderator is collating and compiling input. However, most of that input, even in a fairly highly ruled NES like BirdNES, is mostly outside of stats. Even if they were no stats they would still be "Players" as their events would be impacting progress unless you just completely ignored them. Even though they do have input in such instances however, that input is filtered through the moderator, and as such, he has more or less total power over its interpretation.