Trolls and shills are real. If you don't think so try moderating an online community of any size or controversy. You're fucked either way. If you go after them you 'divide the community' and if you don't then the shill wins and divides the community. Do you see the issue here? The only option is wise moderation that removes the shills and leaves the good faith debaters. That's the best we can do.

'Shills' are people too... maybe misguided, lacking a fine tuned perspective / understanding, but people, just like us

I don't think you understand what a shill is. Here's an example of pro Israel shill.

https://altcensored.com/watch?v=gqekMUZttvU&playlist=ACen3xjAlpvmZZ2AnO6km7pa

These people are literally paid (often out of military budgets) to sow division.

*text version if you prefer reading

https://www.unz.com/article/how-israel-and-its-partisans-work-to-censor-the-internet/