When an elder was not a dogmatic enforcer, congregration members felt they were in a "liberal" Hall
LOL That's absolutely true, Minimus.
Personally, my dad was an elder before I was born, so the elders were never something foreign or fearful to me. I was friends with some of them; others I couldn't stand. But the title didn't mean much to me; they were just people.
As far as judgmentalism and controlling and all that crap... the elders didn't have a monopoly on that. It was part and parcel of the organizational mindset, at all levels. All of us who were true believers were part of that shit, and IMHO there's little point in comparing who was a bigger piece of shit than whom.