I seem to remember that given as the official reason, and there were certainly plenty of complaints along those lines. Whether that was a convenient excuse for anti-communist schemes or the actual reason I don’t know. Most likely it was some of both, at least in the case of hexbear.
Calling hexbear a “trans instance” is pretty misleading. They’re explicitly political first and foremost, and happen to have a high concentration of trans/queer users. They were defederated by .world for being overbearing and disruptive, not because of their transness or queerness. Blahaj zone, by comparison, is explicitly a trans instance first and foremost, and is still federated by .world.
Despite Disney’s best efforts I doubt rule 34 has spared Winnie the Pooh, and yet my childhood memories are just fine. I prefer the musical/tv movie version of Peter Pan with Mary Martin, but the Disney adaptation hasn’t spoiled my memory of it.
Have you ever tried ignoring works you don’t like? Just go about your life and mind your own business, it’s actually quite easy.