I'm sure that's the case as well. I'm not entirely convinced though that whoever would step into the mod role from the community would be suited to the role (on average).

With the number of eyes Reddit has on it every day I see it as being a huge target for malicious actors (read ad-bots, brigadiers, self-promotion, trolls) and as a sub grows it too can become somewhere those actors can post and comment with impunity; and have. I truly think that modding an even relatively popular sub with good tools is time consuming and mentally exhausting work. Take those tools away and it can become a nightmare in a hurry depending on the nature of the issue.

Whether someone from the community can just step into that role is a big dice-roll. They may be either unwilling or unable to keep the subs content on-topic and reign in bad behavior within he sub. Then again they may be perfectly suited to take up the mantle, only time will tell.