@Wehwalt, yes, it seems you're right, it wasn't worth the grief, but people just reacted when they saw folks editing.  I didn't even think once about the idea that I could edit because I was an admin, I just thought that the page was in a poor state and needed working on because it was going to get many thousands of hits in the next day or three.
@Sarek, yes, I was always careful not to make anything other than changes to improve the current article.  But I understand that (per Wehwalt, and the ensuing fallout) logic didn't really apply, no-one looked at the edits, they just assumed I was being a "supereditor", not making changes to improve an extra-ordinarily prominent article.  Anyway, water under the bridge as it's already semi-prot (which it should always have been in any case....)