If you read the GitHub issue, the debate was not over its existence, just that instance operators should be able to configure it, which it sounds like they now can anyway (last comment on issue, he said it was added).

There was no need, and is quite malicious, to imply and talk down to their own users/supporters of their software as anything"-ist" in their motivations, which in many cases is considered a more corrosive/ruinous label (court of public opinion) than "convicted criminal" (court of law) in the West.