I don’t really enjoy block systems myself, but that is what block has shifted to mean.

In the past “block” used to mean what “mute” means now: Hide from me. I believe it’s around the time Twitter became popular that the meaning has shifted to being a bi-directional mute.

I find that the need for a blocking system as that just points to a broken moderation system, and a broken society at large.

At least for Reddit, these "broken" features (like making your comment history private) have clear financial motives to mask bots and bad actor detection.