I would say it’s hard to quantify specific examples of it helping in the sense you mean, the point of it is to create more awareness of institutional prejudices that affect groups of people. Becoming aware of these prejudices is the first step towards finding ways for those institutions to provide their services more equally to people.
No he’s right, they actively engage aggressively with anyone who does not share their views and it’s pretty unsubtle. Ignore and block them, you can’t have honest discussions with them so why bother?