This is silly.
Zoe is one of the finest contributors Wikipedia has. The fact that a few people, most of whom have flawed agendas, feel threatened by her being a sysop should raise an alarm about those people opposed to Zoe more than anything else.
Besides, being a sysop is not some remarkable surge of power. It simply makes it easier to revert vandalism. It is pretty obvious to me that Zoe would not abuse any additional editorial powers she gets.
I suggest that we ask Zoe to reconsider and become a sysop.
Danny