If they were genuinely just attempting to "troll" by spamming (which is a pretty lame thing to do to begin with), they wouldn't have had to use a racist slur in their message. The fact they did makes their intent pretty clear.
If a project taking a stance against people spamming the n-word makes you lose respect for them, that says a lot more about you than the project.
Do you really think a teenage internet troll who wants to offend as many people as possible would stop and think "You know what, I sure do love pissing people off but I draw the line at 'NIGGER BALLS'"?
> If a project taking a stance against people spamming the n-word makes you lose respect for them, that says a lot more about you than the project.
They weren't "taking a stance" against spam, they were claiming that FOSS itself was in danger due to a non-existent far-right campaign against them.
Trolling is trying to piss off as many people as possible, using such a word achieved exactly that.