All right, I have to admit... that you are right. It's probably not going to work, kind of a flawed idea to begin with (and admittedly, very self-serving). JackBaldy, thanks for taking the time to listen to what I had to say, and pointing out the problems.
I think it's time to go down a different route and bring things back to the original post: letting players who don't want to see the chat do so, in a much more intuitive manner.
Suggestion #2: Client-side Overhaul of Mute System (now with 20% less power-hungry subtext!)
How about the devs giving people more client-side options for muting other players — and making it a whole lot easier. For starters, a general "chat off" option should be allowed for anyone who doesn't want to use it or see it. This was suggested earlier and immediately shot down because "what if an admin is trying to tell them something important." Simple fix, allow admins to bypass the "no chat" filter and let them communicate to the player as normal.
Secondly, for people who want to use the chat system only to send and give "orders" (not the typed kind, but the "archers, hear me!" "everyone, hold this position" prewritten orders), then they can set up their filter to "show only orders." I know that it's generally not very common for players to use the order system in MP, but it would be extremely simple to implement and thus, why not.
Lastly, for anyone who wants to use chat as normal but would like to mute a player — it's been pointed out that the list that pops up when scanning through the players is a disorganized mess (sorted by score, not by name), and if you're on a crazy cRPG server with dozens upon dozens of players, scanning it is incredibly time consuming! Especially if you end up spawning during the process, in which case you end up defenseless until you close the window. How about a much more intuitive sorting system — like keeping it alphabetical by default (and maybe adding an option to sort the list by number of chat posts — so that anyone who's been jabbering a lot has a higher chance of being brought to the forefront of the player's attention, in case you want to quickly mute all the members of a heated ongoing argument).
In conclusion:
1. Allow players to disable chat (posts from server admins and polls will always remain visible)
2. Allow players to enable a "limited chat" (allowing only the orders system, should they feel so inclined to use it [the crazies!!], and as above, the admins/polls)
3. Overhaul the "mute player" list to default to alphabetical sorting, with an added option of sorting by post count, to allow for swift muting of players on populated servers.
I think this is so much better than my original idea. No server settings, no censorship, and most importantly, no further separation of the already dwindling player base. Everybody gets what they want. Huzzah.