X links are fine. People who don't want to visit the site can choose not to visit it.

This current situation where people get shamed for sharing the information until they edit it out and leave obscure "search for___ on X" is infinitely worse.

I think it's the best possible approach. It lets you refer to content that's unfortunately stuck on the site, while still signaling clearly that it's something to avoid if possible and to apologize for if not. Omitting the link just removes information without influencing consensus on whether to use X.

edit: I wish it would let me view the darn screenshot tho :c

Or just upload a screenshot to a link sharing site and post it here

I removed it, but it's frustrating when the options are someone's (reasonable) post on X, or slop-spam aggregators. I don't really want to drive visits to either, but at least the X poster can get the views. I don't really like xcancel either as it still encourages indirect engagement with X.