From what I've seen, forums take a life of their own, have 'moods' of sorts that change/alternate through time.
Modding can be difficult.
Maybe a middle ground would be something like another sub-forum, similar to The Mature Man, where threads only end up if moved there by a mod after a request (by thread OP, or preferably, another frequent member). "Higher end" type of content that the OP is trying to describe.
That would pose its own challenges, in time for mods, and, in determining what qualifies for that sub.