> It would make moderation impossible otherwise.

Why would you need to moderate private messages between users?

People sending unwanted DMs is an obvious reason. At the very least, users should be able to report DMs and then that should allow for moderation.

It's very common in some spaces to get people who send unwanted (spam/harassment/etc) DMs to tons of people. Just expecting everyone to block those people makes for a horrible user experience, because it means new users might be suddenly met by a bunch of unwanted DMs from aggressive randos that remain unbanned. You really need to be able to ban these people (and that means being able to verify that they did what they're accused of).

Protect the kids bla bla bla...

Always the same political excuse