Moderation does participate in the culture of course, but I disagree that it would drive it necessarily. You can only do so much by reminding people to align with the posting guidelines and removing ill fitting posts and individuals.

This place would look like 4chan if it wasn't for the moderation.

Moderation absolutely drives the culture, by setting a tone that drives away certain users while attracting others.

In other words what ever issues a site has are inherently due to moderation whether it be a choice on the part the moderators or a lack of resources to moderate as they would like to.