Actually, the problem shows itself when you're *not* concerned about it.. lets suppose I'm some user who's just checking his logs, then I suddenly find a bizarre mode change.. depending on the context, of course, I get confused.
Another example are "log <-> html" addons and the like, which can be fooled.

About trust in operators, that depends on the channel environment. For example, there are a lot of channels which work giving op to anyone who joins. Whether anyone thinks it's a bad channel administration or not, this is the owner's matter. I'm glad mIRC doesn't dictate any channel administration point of view.


* cold edits his posts 24/7