from where i am standing way too many people are trying to return to the fucked up normal that came before trump instead of demanding better.

Really? I don't see that. I see people wanting better. I also see ML types not wanting to get the snow ball rolling on building electoral influence. They have none and make no effort to make any; they they wonder why they have made no head way or got anything from it.

the democrats as a party are themselves extremely worried about purity testing too, to all of our detriment. they specifically exclude anyone pro-palestine and anti-capitalist,

I mean. I clearly wrote before; voting blue is a last resort. And one that we won't be able to move away from as many MLs just don't care to help the rest of us on this front.

if we’re on a long march they are actively walking the wrong way, not to mention actively sabotaging us.

To expand on that... It looked even worse as they kept going, and kept getting more unpleasant. If they made the "principled" stance you are trying to make they would have been defeated in totality. Still the retreat was needed to pull forward later. They had to take steps that looked like abandoning their villages and towns, but they understood that if they didn't then no one was going to be around for them tomorrow. I am sure they had the same recoil you feel at the possibility to vote for a mid dem, but many in the .ml server are unwilling to do what is needed (seems to me)

By the way, there are also more than just presidential elections. Local elections are far more important and often have on gerrymander or even people bothering to vote. These are not terribly expensive.