I don't think you can productively have, "Stop the DM from being a jerk," rules. But there is a place for, "Help the DM not accidently be a jerk," rules. Once you state it like that, it is pretty clear that such rules are "training wheels" in some ways, should be truly optional, and most importantly, clearly called out as both optional and why. These are the kind of rules that, once you've mastered why they are there, you really don't need them anymore. But you might need help getting to that mastery, both for general game mastering, and because of nuances in a particular system. The 3E monster CR rating edges into this, and the 4E monster XP budget is even closer.
However, if someone wants to call these kind of things, "mechanical or technical advice" instead of rules, I guess I can see that.
On the bigger picture, I'm also fairly certain that dials are tough to do. Burning Wheel doesn't really have them. In a melee combat, you can use Bloody Versus, or you can use the Fight! system. In ranged, you can use Bloody Versus, or you can use Range and Cover. Binary choices, not dials. People have complained about that very point, wanting something in the middle.
A workable dial probably has to have a structure around it that doesn't change. So you can't make everything a dial. An elevator can safely and efficiently dial to any floor precisely because that is all it does. Burning Wheel is a system that could add rules and systems to dial combat, because the framework around combat already works for two binary choices that are on the extreme ends of what a dial could encompass.
Presumably, in D&D, one of the unchanging structural elements that would allow dials in combat, social, etc. would be character-based. That is, your fighter can have a "Cleave" option. It might work in a more complicated fashion if you dial up combat, but if he has that option, he still has it no matter where the dial goes. That's tougher, of course, for options like "Cleave" than it is for things like Strength or Dexterity or Reflex defense or hit points.