Those were early days. You don’t see that kind of stuff very often now. The reaction screed was rhetorically exaggerated and quite overblown.
Many of the oldtimers here have offended the powers that be from time to time. A genteel response and polite request for reinstatement usually works. It’s the diehards who make mountains of molehills defending basically their ego rather than their debate points who write these kinds of opuses.