“I understand your mental health problems and your efforts to be your best self. The pros of spending time with you outweigh the cons; you have not lost my affection.”
vs
“This topic brings my discomfort with you to the fore. Join me in a mutual lie so that we can continue our suffering and never make progress.”
I think going forward it would be wise to have a rule that communities need to be actively moderated at some minimum interval by an account on the community’s home instance, or else face closure or the institution of new moderation. Sitting on an unused community is like owning unused private property. “I don’t want this, but I don’t want you to have it either.”