You're right; it could be that the cure is worse than the disease.

However, my main concern is that while games have found numerous ways of helping good people ignore, avoid, or punish bad behavior, there seems to be little if anything in place to help good people find other good people.

Let's say that someone like me joins a new MMO. I'm not there to cause trouble or be obnoxious, obviously. I'm there to have fun and treat people with respect. I take the liberty of considering people like me to be the ideal audience for an MMO. I'm the guy that the developer *should* want to join the community; I have a stable income, mature perspective, and am hardly ever offensive or obnoxious. I'm in the game to have fun. :P

Now, I ask you, while the game might help a guy like me block out or ignore offensive people, what is in place to help me connect to other good folks? What is there to help me find people of similar outlook and disposition? To my mind, the game is better at helping be block bad people than helping me find good people. And that's obviously an issue.