Hoi,
When there is a need to be an admin and DO something, you will either have the buttons and DO the things that need doing or you forget about it. The point of keeping the role of admin is that it is easy to re-connect. The point of being forced to ask to be admin is that the chance of not bothering any more is exactly the reason why this is a bad policy for Commons. You lose good people in this way.
Thanks,
GerardM
If you lose admin rights due to never using the tools, what's the big deal?
You wouldn't miss them at all, since you never used them, and if you
suddenly decided you wanted to, you can always ask for them back. No point
in keeping the status for no reason (much like the many inactive bureaucrats
on enwiki.)