You have contradicted yourself within your comment. Either a "privileged port" can be trusted or it cannot.

As I implied in my previous comment, "privileged ports" are no longer a signal of trust on Internet hosts. Literally anyone could have administrator access to a host. The MUD could be running on a Raspberry Pi in a guy's basement. A telnetd server could be on port 23 of a personal router. You could telnet into a print server, a washing machine, or a microwave oven.

In a world where devices are cheap, personal, and accessible, anyone could be an administrator of anything.

You say "privileged ports ... protect you from users who could run arbitrary code" which makes no sense, man! Unprivileged users can always run arbitrary code unless they can't! Administrators must be able to run arbitrary code! Why should you be protected from that? If someone cannot run arbitrary code then chances are that they cannot bind a "privileged port" so is that what you meant?

Again, why does a MUD need a privileged port? Why? No reason. The vast majority of "privileged ports" are occupied and assigned. You do not want to use them. You have no reason to use unassigned, privileged ports for a MUD. It is not a question of "trust" or "arbitrary code" or authenticated users -- it's just a dumb game with no effects on the OS or host system, man! It's a virtual system!

I am afraid that MUD gaming has messed with people's minds more than social media. I myself was psychologically damaged by it. I urge you to seek help, before anyone else posts incoherent comments in this thread today.