Implies that your page is reached so yes you are on a closer layer to the server than a block done at the firewall level, however it does not mean that it is a security issue that necessitates a reverse proxy.
The tool I proposed is already 80% less request and discourse is a secure app, now if you have other things hosted on your server like a website a reverse proxy may be useful, meanwhile there are other solutions to block IP with bad reputations like Crowdsec, ask you AI about crowdsec light 