:::What would you do to me if I told you to "shut the fuck up you whining twat"? You'd probably block me. If I did the same thing again after the block expired, you'd block me for longer. Eventually I'd be subject to an indefinite ban. But what do we do with "respected admins"? Can't template them, that'd be rude. Can't block them, no admin would do that. So basically the policy amounts to "once you reach a certain level of authority here, you are free to tell anyone to fuck off, as long as you're a self-confessed 'surly old bastard'." Call it the "surly-old bastard admin" clause, and add it to WP:NPA, because that's basically what's going on here.  
 :::Note: I'm not being completely facetious here: I would not mind at all if that was actually added to the policy - hey, if it reached consensus that certain admins can act this way, then who am I to question it? But civility is a pillar and this user flaunts it, and his flaunting it poisons the project. That's my problem in a nutshell.