Just say they. Not he/she. They. End of argument.

I think the ban was a little too harsh, but removing that comment was the right decision.

I also see a few problems with your "your highness" comparison:

1. "Your highness" is an official title, not a personal designation. Its proper usage depends heavily on the context, e.g. the perceived social rank and status, how well people know each other, if it's a formal or informal conversation, and so on. Pronouns have none of that, you just use the one people identify as and that's it.

2. It implies that people just pick whatever term they can come up with to mess with others or to mock them. People don't choose a pronoun lightly, they usually think about it a lot and it's an important personal decision. They also usually pick one of the common pronouns, so it's really not hard to just use it.

Making quick logical comparisons regarding social norms is a very tricky thing in my experience. There are many things going on that we aren't fully aware of all of the time, and getting it wrong can hurt people badly.

Totally agree, opinion shouldn't enter into such decisions. It's emotional immaturity to do so.

What you fail to understand is that in cyberspace, people can do whatever they want to do.

You say mods don’t have this or that right, but rights don’t enter into it. They have that power, and they use that power.

ML is a brittle place based on a lie. Expecting them to behave in a fair way toward opinions was extremely naive of you.

Well, my @programming.dev account got banned!

I guess, I'll just have to shut up, and just keep posting memes. 🤷🏻