Muting would be gone. I don’t mute people, but people here do, and get angry at each other about it. I have the sense that people aren’t fully understanding how this will all work. You will be able to take a break from talking with users, it won’t be by blocking their replies, however.
Let's be clear, then: what you're trying to do is prevent people from getting mad at each other. During a pandemic. Under the most controversial president we've ever had. While there's a recession on. And 58 million people are unemployed. I know you hate muting but look: you can't have a conversation on the Internet without some sort of moderation. Heavy, light, top-down, bottom-up, whatever: this functionality is required even on the chans. And I know you think what you're doing isn't muting, but it's worse: it's giving everyone earplugs and requiring them to opt into hearing literally everyone. You can't attempt to "solve" muting if it's not even a feature you use. The fact that you can ban spammers and the rest of us can't means that your experience does not match that of any other user.