Of course harassment is never okay, but I'd say when it comes to GNOME, this is not surprising. GNOME developers have been so hostile towards both users and other developers for a long time. I'm not saying every single person associated with the project does this, but it is pretty common (e.g. here and here ). Of course the GNOME devs don't have to accomodate everyone, but it is a common theme with the project to remove features despite user backlash and also to close bugs as WONTFIX often without good explanations as to why, even when there are pull requests for fixing the problem.
I am simply avoiding the project, since there are enough good alternatives.