That's a good point. Perhaps it really is a philosophical question. Should controllers be expected to digest the current situation and make a well reasoned judgement, or should they mechanically react to what is presented to them "in the moment", and defer more important decisions to nominally more superior "supervisors". In my opinion I would rather my controllers exercise a proactive sense of good judgement, rather than wait until a conflict occurs between two aircraft, and I'm sure most would agree that's the essence of common sense. I should hope all controllers on the network are capable and proactive. Leaving a decision to a supervisor is tantamount to "passing the buck", in my opinion.
Just for the record, I don't really think of using .wallop as a "pass the buck" method. As a supervisor it is my job to deal with this sort of thing. I don't think controllers should be expected to necessarily be able to take the time needed to get in contact with an unresponsive pilot, particularly when the pilot is new and may not have even managed to sort out using text or private messaging in their pilot client yet. Honestly this can be a very time consuming process, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect that a controller should always be able to spare the time necessary, particularly when busy.
The issue isn't that supervisors are somehow superior to controllers (they aren't), or that controllers are incapable of dealing with conflicts in their airspace without help (in most cases, they are quite good at this). The issue is that it's not always easy for a controller to take the time needed to teach a pilot how to respond to PMs or tune a frequency, particularly when the pilot is very new to Vatsim (I find that this is almost always the case among non-responsive pilots who aren't simply AFK). I have always advised my controllers to use all of the tools at their disposal to quickly and efficiently resolve problems, and .wallop is another tool available to them.
And just for the record, the idea of waiting for an impending conflict before eliciting a supervisor seems to indicate that the function of a supervisor is always disciplinary in nature. This isn't necessarily the case, and in some cases may actually limit the options of the supervisor. If I receive a wallop and by the time I see the aircraft in question, a conflict is imminent, this leaves me with little option other than to immediately resolve the situation (unfortunately, my options for this are extremely limited). If, on the other hand, I receive the wallop while this pilot is still off by himself and not in conflict, this gives me the additional time required to potentially make contact with the pilot, and ideally get the pilot in contact with the controller, which avoids the conflict before it happens.
Just my $0.02
