And let’s further imagine that [...] both have a sophisticated understanding of power dynamics, great communication, solid introspection, strong self-confidence, and the best of intentions.
Somewhat of a separate point: People may tend to overestimate these factors. A friend brought up the argument that it seems to them that people sleeping with each other often makes things awkward or creates a mess of some sort. If true, that point by itself, independently of any further reasoning about whether anyone is morally at fault and independently of questions about bad incentives around power dynamics, is an (impact-driven) argument to not do it in your professional community.
Somewhat of a separate point: People may tend to overestimate these factors. A friend brought up the argument that it seems to them that people sleeping with each other often makes things awkward or creates a mess of some sort. If true, that point by itself, independently of any further reasoning about whether anyone is morally at fault and independently of questions about bad incentives around power dynamics, is an (impact-driven) argument to not do it in your professional community.