[lyndysmart]

Thanks a lot for the explanation @henrywright. I eventually used the following code from http://buddydev.com/buddypress/hiding-users-on-buddypress-based-site/

add_filter( 'bp_after_has_members_parse_args', 'buddydev_exclude_users' );
 
function buddydev_exclude_users( $args ) {
    //do not exclude in admin
    if( is_admin() && ! defined( 'DOING_AJAX' ) ) {
        return $args;
    }
    
    $excluded = isset( $args['exclude'] )? $args['exclude'] : array();
 
    if( !is_array( $excluded ) ) {
        $excluded = explode(',', $excluded );
    }
    
    $user_ids = array( 1,2,3 ); //user ids
    
    
    $excluded = array_merge( $excluded, $user_ids );
    
    $args['exclude'] = $excluded;
    
    return $args;
}

It worked in hiding users from directories/widgets/friend lists, only that it didn’t also handle profile redirect. I had to set up redirects to homepage for all the admin accounts on server side.

Thanks again for your assistance on this.