There are times I suspect Q was watching some of us - or parts of the teams. It would surprise me if I was not flagged in my forum rants over the years due to my eccentric behavior. I would have kept an eye on myself if it was my job to keep track of national security concerns, even if the concern wasn't that I was an enemy of the nation or latent psycho.
Some of us dug hard, before we were on the chans. Forum arguments would spiral into PhD level dissertations and completely cited works. If there was a template for Q, we wrote it, in many ways. Q would be the intel team that listened and said "… These guys can see through a lot of the bullshit and won't take it laying down" - for some on the Q team, we may have even been their red pill that drove them to look into the archives less traveled and find the proof that is classified.
People like myself are crazy, so we always suspect we are being observed and speak to those observers. A response on a forum isn't just a response, it is a highlight or illustration for an audience.
Honestly, Q and team have, like you said, the patience of a saint. As I have come to understand more, as well, I am unfathomably pissed at how many good people have been deceived, tortured, killed, and discarded by the people who were running the show.