(Disclaimer: I'm a reddit 5-year user who's interacted with you through a different account)

From my own perspective, SRS became what it is for a reason. It is very difficult maintaining a woman-focused community without SRS-style moderation tactics (although the jerk is a bit much). Go into any /r/TwoX, /r/TrollX, /r/feminism, /r/feminisms, or /r/askfeminists post, particularly one that is only a few hours old, and note the extent to which conversations and entire posts are derailed by men who want to instead discuss men's issues. The only solution I see is to remove such comments and ban repeat offenders.

I would say the "war footing" is not the fault of SRS, but of those who are deliberately trying to provoke women wherever and whenever possible, many of whom seem to come from /r/mensrights judging by the overlap of users and rate at which arguments are reposted there. I would love to be able to discuss gender issues without being constantly attacked by people who are not open to conversation in any way. That's simply not possible without SRS-style moderation policies.