Blocking is not a moderator-level function, it is quite personal. You're welcome to continue chatting in the community, just don't reply to me with any more of your hate speech. I don't want it anywhere in my comment thread, I don't have to put up with that shit. Hiding it from me is not a block feature at all, it's a mute feature. I don't want to mute them, I don't want to close my eyes, and pretend I can't see their hate. I want to stop them from pretending to interact with me, I want them to stop posting bigotry in response to my comments, I want them to go the fuck away.
If they invade some other comment thread, there is no risk that anybody will think, "oh, he just couldn't come up with a reply to that last bit of bigotry, I guess the bigot won!" If they annoy others, they'll get downvoted, or the mods will act, whatever—not my business, I'm not looking for a moderation function, I'm looking for a personal function.
I'm not worried about the last word anywhere in the comment section, I'm worried about the last word in my comment thread, where they're directly harassing me. If they have something worth saying, if they have a narrative worth continuing, it'll be worth continuing in some other thread, rather than in direct response to me.
And if every user in the community blocks them, they earned it.