I'm not sure this would solve anything, but has it been considered to use a separate moderator account for actions that are purely moderative in nature? This would further distance the moderation function from the discursive function of frontpagers. It would have the added benefit that all moderative comments would then be collected under a single user, and those interested to see in which context such moderation occurred could consult a single page rather than having to search through 1000s of comments by all front pagers in search of the tag.