Looking at the modlog, the moderator obviously didn’t do it maliciously

Oh indeed - Mods set the remit of their communities and enforce it. Experience suggests some don’t like meta discussions - so it wasn’t a post about Star Wars but about something which would be about Star Wars.

ultimately, that kills any traction and prevents the community from coming together to support the idea and discuss important things like funding

Yes, it’s a bit Catch 22. Fortunately, @Blaze@reddthat.com has said I can restart discussion here, as it’s a handy place to float to float ideas for new instances to see what the interest might be.