I knew that the toxicity of reddit was affecting me, but I didn't realize just how much until the move to Lemmy back in June. Everything was just so nice, people just happily chatted in comments, most disagreements were talked through or an "agree to disagree" arrangement was reached. Seeing the rude, angry people and the trolls creep back in was so disappointing (though I do realize it's inevitable. I used to mod forums back in the day.) Having a good chunk of those negative types on one instances is a positive thing, though. With the tools at hand, we can nip it in the bud by just blocking the lot of them.
Something I think people forget in all these many posts about blocking instances is that blocking is not a permanent thing. The mods aren't hitting the big red button and nuking the instance from existence forever. It can be undone. Times change, people change, forums/subreddits/instances change as they age. If it looks like things may have improved in a blocked instance, the ban can be lifted.