This post looks like it was from 2018, so pretty early on in the game's life.
I remember it. People would get banned for using emotes if someone reported that they felt mocked. And people would report players that weren't using meta characters for "gameplay sabotage", and they would occasionally be banned.
i remember all the way back OW1 when "griefing" was a thing that people enjoyed to do for some reason, meaning you're basically boned if you're playing with randos. looks like the "ban everyone all the time" solution didn't quite pan out
It was not an uncommon occurrence for people to play as, say, Symmetra, Torb or Hanzo and refuse to switch regardless of the circumstances of play and whether they were able to use those characters effectively. People got reported (and subsequently banned) for throwing matches and griefing constantly if they were on an off-meta or "troll" character in Overwatch 1. Thinking specifically around seasons 1-10 or so.
That's when I played. When it first released and for a few years afterwards. I usually played with friends at a high level though so maybe I just wasn't exposed to trolls like that enough to form a memory.