They are not experts in the process of moderation. They are experts in a field and also mod subs in that field.
So they're doing labor but not moderation labor, they could do the same thing with an unprivileged account?
They are also not experts in their field. Any time I see a topic in my field on Reddit the comments that imply expert knowledge are virtually guaranteed to be factually incorrect. I've never seen any evidence that a Reddit moderator possesses any special knowledge of any topic. Has your experience been different? Maybe I've just never visited the right subreddits.
Has your experience been different?
He is claiming it's different. It's his whole point.