Manufacturers pushing their products and agenda in the forums.

What oft happens, in fact, is that disagreement is either interpreted as OR incorrectly characterized as abuse. I.e., It’s a tactic. Sometimes referred to as brown-nosing. 🤗Without freedom of speech, there can be no democracy. This country was founded on differences of opinion. Besides don’t differences of opinion make for a more interesting and robust forum? I’m not referring to name calling, not at all. Look at what happened to some other audio forums, I won’t mention any names, that fell into disrepair and even ...oblivion 💀 once there’s was no action.

I find that audio is probably the most petty and brutal forum type on the net. In the top 5 or maybe the top three.

Almost as if notable percentages of the the adherents don’t know how to participate if they can’t express wanton negativity.

The illustration of that, in clarity and in repetition so you know it is tru(er), is that... when a political thread appears in the off topic section... they are far more civilized and calm than the audio discussions.

I don't care for the vendors that do the things you mentioned, but I'm sure there are some that appreciate their posts. 

Some people know how to use social media to build their reputation as experts or thought leaders, and some manage to tear down their reputation by misusing social media.  IMHO the posters you described are doing themselves more harm than good and aren't savvy enough to see that.

As long as this place doesn't become a complete spamfest, I don't think they should be banned or restricted as long as they're offering some educational content that may be of value to some members.  

I find the tactics you mentioned offensive and would not do business with anyone that conducts themselves in that way.  Others may see it differently.