User blog comment:Brandon Rhea/Tips for becoming an admin/@comment-5061099-20121221213020/@comment-1318845-20130112001823

Well, yes and no. While it's true that making every user who has 20 edits a sysop is excessive, sysop tools are useful, especially as wikis get larger and get more, for example, useless images. When it comes down to it, they're just tools, and if a user can help the wiki with the tools without damaging it, there's no practical reason not to.

But if a wiki does not regularly use sysop tools, then the flip side of the coin comes into play, and there's no reason to grant other users them. Maybe give them rollback instead; rollback isn't very useful, but it's a good way to acknowledge that these are good editors and they should keep at it.