Maybe reduce the meaning of the ban from “you can’t reply to this person at all” to “you can only post one reply per article”? So you can state your objections, but you can’t stay there and keep interacting with the author. When you are writing the reply, you are notified that this is the only one you get under this article.
could be good, if combined with up to 3 total bans
could be good, if combined with up to 3 total bans