Lots to unpack here. Firstly, I was the one who originally wrote the Guidelines, so if one insists on throwing mud, do so at me.
Having said that, if the Guidelines had a version history, you would see that its first edition forbade "Who would win" and "Character A vs Character B" posts outright, because I witnessed Wookiepedia's forum go from a legitimately thoughtful place of discussion and long threads of fans engaging with the lore, to its current state of endless "who's the best????" polls largely because of those types of posts. I desired to avoid this here. Overly harsh on my part? Perhaps. Regardless, I was talked down from the edge by others, and we agreed to soften the language to its current form.
The unfortunate but inevitable consequence of this is that the Guidelines become subjective. What qualifies as substantive discussion? What qualifies as thought-provoking? Fair questions. It is difficult to quantify these things, yet we must try, for otherwise the forum becomes either whim-dictated totalitarian admin-rule, or Reddit free-for-all.
@Atlas D. Aeradon also has a fair point that administrators must dispense action impartially to all posts - yes! That is our duty here. But please don't forget that this isn't our primary profession - for instance I have a full-time real-world cyberspace career, that I just now got home from. If we miss things, please be assured that it is because we did not see them or are worn out from a long day - I've no interest in discriminating by user.
In sum, adherence to the Guidelines is non-negotiable, but the Guidelines should also be as objective as possible. I will confer with HiddenVale offline to see if there are ways we can improve upon it. And we welcome feedback! After all, this is a discussion forum, and diversity of thought is always a good thing. Anyone is always welcome to write me at my talk page (https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/User_talk:Bitterhand) or HiddenVale at his (https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/User_talk:HiddenVale).