The fact that the ama mods went through all that work to host amas, totally for free, even developing and paying for their own web site to arrange amas, really shows how hungry those guys were for power and control.
I dunno man, many amas were really great. And many people get their kicks from arranging something really cool for the community, not from power and control. I don't say there weren't some who did it for power and control, but I'd be honestly surprised if they would be a majority.
Sometimes just doing something that people enjoy is a reward in and of itself.