I've been thinking about this all day, and now I fear that I may have caused more trouble than I bargained for. The cure is worse than the disease.
I don't think that's related to your actions specifically, just to the fact that you brought the issue to the attention of more people, and more of us told the hotheads to cool off for a while. I don't think that's a bad result at all. The article pages on which they were fighting (e.g., "Anti- semitism") are actually pretty good articles at the moment, so there's no immediate need for revision. And I've noticed Graham at least making useful edits to non-controversial pages in the last day or two. I think that's a fine result.
I'm also sympathetic to the possibility that maybe one way to attract and keep more experts is to be less tolerant of nonsense and more liberal with blocks and other "official" sanctions.