I do believe it is fairly clear that many of those in power
at WP practise favouritism, at least to the extent that I
don't see how anyone could expect a WR member who
was banned from WP to be allowed the same courtesies
as a 'respected WP admin'.
The reasoning behind it, I suppose, is that 'favoured'
people are theoretically 'favoured' because they help
WP, and that by helping them, you are helping WP.
'Disfavoured' people, on the other hand, are theoretically
'disfavoured' because they hurt WP, and therefore they
have to be taught a lesson, so helping them would hurt
WP. (The positive favouritism makes some sense. The
disfavouritism I consider generally unethical.)
In cases where this results in 'disfavoured' peoples not
being allowed things that WP should do for everyone,
such as respect for their privacy, reputations, right to
vanish, etc., I do disapprove. Quite strongly.
But, accepting that favouritism does indeed exist, and
that isn't likely to change any time soon, isn't a bribe sort
of the same thing? If for example, Good Articles are
offered in exchange for the removal of defamation
against a disfavoured person, does that not ensure that
removing the defamation does indeed help WP, since
WP will then have more GAs? So, if WP already
practises favouritism, should they not, by the same logic,
also accept bribes of offers to help their 'encyclopaedia'?
Indeed, bribes are probably better than favouritism. Aside
from misidentification of who should be 'favoured', if a
disfavoured person needs something done, they are
basically screwed under the favouritism system. Bribery
is much more equal opportunity. Anyone can, in theory,
either write a few GAs or get a friend to write them. Thus,
anyone who wanted defamation about them removed badly
enough could, under a bribery system, get it removed, for a
price.
Therefore, bribery is superior to favouritism. Not to mention
most likely much cheaper than a lawsuit.
Nothing in this post discusses bribes of things other than
helping their 'encyclopaedia', or bribes to do things that
they shouldn't really be doing anyway.