The hardest time in WP history after the first few years was when the vandalism was really bad. The obvious stuff was bad enough, and all the fixing wasted countless hours that could have been far-better spent. That led to some of the Draconian attitudes some noobs experienced.
There were many problems, but they are diminishing as time goes by. The number of editors is meaningless; the quality of their work is what matters. 50,000 or 30,000 or 300 could all have the same result. And it’s all done on free time, so it’s a work of decades not years.
