As
@cunt said quite plainly; a lot of the way Willard is/was structured read less about an actual understanding of what running a community actually entails in 2021 and far more about being out-and-out contrarian so they can go "Look! we're not like those other servers!" - which is a big part of why more time in the three weeks post-launch was spent either panickedly trying to deflect or downplay issues until they physically couldn't risk doing so anymore.
Gmod is not a nice, wholesome place to build a community in. You will get trolls, minges, people who abuse your rules - or lack thereof, in this case - and those who're just looking to abuse your loopholes. A lot of those communities seem the way they do because they've sacrificed certain freedoms for the knowledge they can keep a playerbase that wants to be there
and be idiot-proof. You
have to account for the same things they do or you're not going to see anything but a repeat of this botched launch, or you'll die in a few months as the issues ramp up and the playerbase tears you apart.
What WN needs to do is focus on letting the community fit into its own niche rather than painting itself into this over-hyped corner that's somehow going to topple the other big communities out there while not accepting any of the baggage that comes with being one itself.