I think you are referring to some of the mobile clients not interacting with gab. This wasn't mastodon itself. It's an open protocol, anyone can write a client.
If you're referring to something else let me know, I'd be interested.
Just because anyone can work around it, doesn’t mean they should have to. If the package maintainers themselves are censoring stuff as best they can, that’s beyond the pale.
Gab had no more toxic content than any twitter thread on a contentious topic.
If MS Outlook started refusing to communicate with 163.com, would it be fair to say that email had banned 163.com? Would it be fair to say that email users had to work around this block?
I think it's an issue with MS Outlook, not with email.
AFAIK, the two apps that blocked gab were Tusky and Toot!. This isn't like all email clients were doing this. The other thing is that local server admins blocked gab en masse. This is why you should find an instance that matches your requirements.
If you're referring to something else let me know, I'd be interested.