But how is that an "internet"? The point of the free internet was to be free to communicate with whomever.

When you seclude yourself in bubbles, you might feel protected, but really you expose yourself to becoming irrelevant.

The crucial problem is, people confuse message with messenger.

When comments are objectively true and faithful (representing the topic correctly), it doesn't matter who wrote them.

The other way around, knowing somebody personally doesn't guarantee their messages to be true and "not spam". The important thing is to check content thoroughly for actual truth and point out deviations. Just like in an ideal scientific discussion. The remaining social part is a question of civil discourse and enforcing that.