Being a moderator and being on default trust are two different things. The majority of members on default trust aren't moderators. Staff aren't necessarily trusted as far as trades go, they just need to be reliable with moderation policy.
Dont treat a staff member any different than any other member, we don't have any personal info about each other, and staff could just as easily scam as anyone else.
This exactly. EAL has also been accused by
myself and
others of engaging in unethical activity on this forum, and was unable to provide a reasonable explanation. Many members of the forum staff are trustworthy but it is due to other reasons than them simply being staff.
Note that in that second mentioned case:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=970157.0 it was proven that he was leaving his alt accounts (pandacoin etc) positive trust from EAL. If he was added to DT I would negative trust him.