This is an unexpected response. Shadowbanning a person is ok but talking about it is wrong and grotesque? Talking about things is drama and spectacle that needs to be censored? Public opinion doesn't matter at all?

It's not really contrived. The majority of users don't have showdead on or may not even be aware of the issue. And I did suggest a third option; manually approving good comments but not the spam and conspiracy rants.