>What are people so afraid of that 9 moderators are needed?

The way I understand it, it's not "people" who appoint mods. It's mods (or, in this case, mod) who appoint mods. Also, not all of the mods are people.

I'm also not getting the impression that anyone is scared of anything.

People just want the sub to go back to being a MA sub rather than continue to be a constantly censored echo chamber for the one dude with access to the control switches.