I give you props for this post. Well written, explained your thoughts in a well mannered way.
That said, I don't necessarily agree with "this teams fans are excited, so I need to downplay the player/prospect/team". And what I mean, is that I 100% agree it's a thing, but the concept is wrong.
The Leafs have the biggest fanbase, so it's natural that this website has a lot of leaf fans on it, meaning theirs more hype about their good prospects. I would also disagree that Leaf fans get excited over all of their prospects. I doubt there's anyone excited right now about Kizimov or O'Connell.
However, despite being a Leaf fan, I try and look at things, especially pertaining to other teams, as unbiased as I can. For example, if a teams prospect, player or whatever does something awesome, I enjoy that as a hockey fan. I don't try and downplay it because their fans are also excited.
Like, the 'Laine's Better' stuff. That got plastered all over this site leading up to the draft and even after it, because it was known the Leafs were picking Matthews, and some didn't like the Leafs were getting an elite star. Like it was posted so much, it's now a meme. Yet, that's Leaf fans fault?
Now, are Leaf fans victims? God no. There are a lot of bad ones, both on the main boards, and on the Leaf boards themselves, but there's still 80-90% of the Leaf fans posters here that know what they are talking about and have good opinions, yet that's all ignored.
I dunno, but at some point this Leaf fans vs Main Boards crap has gotta stop purely on the basis of board quality.