I suspect (without confirmation) that the original reference to gatekeeping in this thread was a reaction to: Inform 7: How do I make it so that when the player types specific keywords (in no particular order) certain text is displayed? (and followup thread from the same person).
That did turn into a bit of a pile-on of “you don’t want to do that.” It was polite, and I think it was supportive, and some of the responses did help get the poster where they wanted to go. (In particular kudos to Daniel Stelzer for writing a whole extension!)
However, I can see that if you’re already in a misery about this forum those threads could look like a coordinated effort to reject a new idea.