Almost everything in the leaked Arbcom communications can be explained by 2 simple principles.

1. If they like you, they will go to great lengths to defend you, and to think well of you, and to credit even the most flimsy and implausible excuses for your otherwise damning conduct.

2. If they don't like you, they will reflexively believe any negative information about you and will continue to hold that belief long after the objective evidence shows the information to be false or misinterpreted. If they don't like you, they will also go to great lengths to avoid taking action against editors that you don't like, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing.

Maybe it's the Arbcom culture, or maybe it's just human nature. It certainly hasn't gotten any better since I left.