For me, it's a personal preference and in my opinion, it's less professional.
I think I remember that thread. IIRC, it went something very, very roughly like this:
Future banned user: It weirds me out a bit how young the mascot looks. I've never been comfortable with cutesy, underage-looking mascots.
The dogpile: How dare you insinuate that the dev a pedophile? Don't you know how anti-trans that dogwhistle is?
I'll also note that you chipped in with
> It's mostly surprising how many grown adult men go into a blind rage when confronted with a picture of a cartoon woman.
when -AFAICT- noone in this subthread expressed anything more heated than "dislike of kawaii". But perhaps you were speaking more generally, and weren't inspired by any conversation that happened in this subthread.
I like it.
It's moreso only a loose indicator the user is between the ages of 14-30, if anything.