On version 0.19 you can block instances so that you don’t see any posts from that instance, instead of having to block communities one by one, you still see comments from users of that instance in other posts so it isn’t completely blocking the instance.
The troll thing was going on a few weeks ago but I haven’t seen any activity like that recently. I sometimes use that instance directly as well as a kbin and a couple others. I browse New generally and haven’t seen any illicit content either.