Not sure I agree that it’s “cruel” but it is definitely heavy-handed. It’s really just a way of enforcing the “lurk more” attitude of old forums at scale.
Telling 20 new accounts each day to read a few posts before making their own gets old fast. It also prevents harassment from day-old troll accounts. It’s not perfect but it is a better solution than doing nothing at all.
Accounts were never shadowbanned for year long periods. I remade my accounts multiple times and never had to wait more than a few weeks before being fully active, minus a few niche subs with oddly strict rules.
I use Bitwarden for both passwords and TOTP. So much easier than messing around with multiple apps.