users can still mute and curate their own experiences

Yes, but it's difficult when you're the only one who doesn't see a reply and the consequences/discussions that resulted from that post. For example, I was looking at the replies received by Peter Todd when he wrote about Ukraine's defence against Russia, from a pro-Ukraine point of view. From people asking how they can find Peter to kill him, "because he's in the open", to how they can't wait to see the kids in Ukraine dead and so on. Now let's imagine that there's a woman, or a young woman, who had those opinions and imagine what extra elements would be in those replies/conversations. That's why I said that I can't judge someone who chooses fences.