The current reactions you're seeing aren't just about the software, it's also about the person.

This very meme is about that person doubling down on their misguided belief that they have the right to dictate who is allowed to be visible on the fediverse. Then there's attempts to twist the narrative by claiming the knowledge of this list was always public (in case it needs to said, a block list deliberately omitted from the git and having the code inject it later from a completely different source means deliberate steps were taken to try and hide the existence of the list). And finally there's also the directed attack to ddos the instance that discovered this list, where the attack vector are unknowing users who read his manifesto on his site.

If we were to just look at the malicious use of the software then yeah, you could make an argument it's been taken too far. But when you factor in the god complex and continued retaliation by the developer I don't think we're at a point where people are overreacting.