I have a real world example of this. My forum was being abused by several users all originating from the Tor network, so the first thing I did (and any sane admin would do) was block Tor access (with a note) for a few hours while I figured out what to do. I ended up unbloacking the network and showing Tor users a low-fi version of the forum, and not letting them sign in without captcha (a simple qualitative question) - reducing load and spam.
But something must be done temporally, I agree that Tor users shouldn't be blocked permanently but quiet is needed in order to implement a solution and to get that quiet you need to block at network level, then you can begin a more permanent mitigation plan.