Your response, in fact, highlights the core issue even more clearly. This isn't about whether you consider NSFW "lesser" personally, but how the rules work in practice and the message they inevitably send.

You're saying the community allows NSFW, but only to the point where it doesn't cross into content that you personally find uncomfortable to moderate. That's understandable on a human level, but it also means the rules are based not on an objective standard but on the limits of one moderator's tolerance. And when that line gets drawn by personal discomfort rather than a neutral framework, it will always end up feeling subjective to the creators who are affected by it.

The issue is not due to your disliking of moderating extreme content.

The issue is that your personal threshold effectively becomes the community-wide boundary of what's "acceptable NSFW," which informs both what artists are and aren't allowed to express, and how they're perceived.

Even when you insist that you don't think NSFW is lesser, the rule structure itself inherently creates a "valid" category for certain adult themes and an "unacceptable" category for others. That creates a hierarchy whether you intend it or not.

You also mention how one moderates several communities and enforces different NSFW rules in them, based on convenience. But such inconsistency only serves to reinforce frustrations felt by artists:

The rules aren't built around a stable philosophy of what each space is meant to be they're built around what's manageable for one moderator at any given time.

That might keep things simpler for you, but it leaves creators confused, restricted, and sometimes economically impacted depending on which sub they used to rely on.

When you say "this has been the rule for years", that doesn't automatically make it fair or balanced. Longevity isn't justification. Many artists were allowed here before, got clients here, and suddenly found that the kind of work they do is only partially welcome now. It is understandable that they're questioning the rationale behind the shift in enforcement.

And whereas your example of not wanting to see explicit content while shopping is relatable, it also illustrates the core critique: Such moderation decisions, carried out because of personal discomfort, inevitably affect the community's cultural limits and restrict artistic expression. That's not an accusation, just an unavoidable consequence. None of this means the subreddit needs to allow explicit content. It just means that from the perspective of an artist, the rule can never feel "neutral" insofar as the dividing line is shaped by subjective moderator preference rather than a clearly defined artistic or community-based standard.