On the other hand, as a Christian Conservative, I used to have people sniping my profile and replying nastily to me when I commented on completely unrelated topics, just because my ideals didn’t align with theirs. Or, auto banning me from subs based on which subs I commented to. In that way, hiding my profile has helped me, because Reddit as a whole is extremely left wing.

Unfortunately, what you state is also true and it is now harder to avoid replying to bots, obvious shills, or trolls.