The image attached portrays the defence of Stalin as a waste of time at best, this is frankly charitable compared to most self proclaimed leftists who think the rehabilitation of Stalin is actively harmful towards our movement.
There are reasons as to why the rehabilitation of Stalin is indeed an important issue and not just some trivial thing that we must halt in order to gain a larger following.
The rehabilitation of Stalin's image is less about the rehabilitation of Stalin as a historical individual and more about defending and upholding Marxism.
Condemning or even refusing to uphold Stalin to at least some extent is equivalent to fighting our enemies on their terms. Why would we let our enemies decide who we should love and hate? There's no reason to allow the historical narrative that our enemies have constructed to be our historical narrative, that's just ideological surrender, may as well become a liberal at that point.
The total slander and demonization of Stalin's image is what leads most people into deviationist tendencies, tendencies which are totally harmless towards the bourgeoisie. It's only logical, if people believe Marxism-Leninism led to practically 1984 in real life, then why would they follow it?
Rather than keeping quiet about the USSR under Stalin, it is our duty to defend this period against the reactionary slander laid upon it. It was the first time in human history that mankind entered the socialist mode of production, and that's something to be cherished.
Lesson being, keep doubling down, embrace chaos, make mistakes, you'll be forgiven more easily than if you act reasonably all along
Edit : I'm not being ironic or something I genuinely think Mao making more mistakes is a sign we shouldn't be afraid of making some along the way
Not sure how you came to that conclusion. Mao corrected course several times in his life when policies were not working.
My point wasn't to say that actually Mao was bad and not Stalin, it was to show that a country can maintain admiration for one of its most important leaders and their achievements while still acknowledging their faults. Mao has been criticized plenty in China. There is a reason why the "70% good, 30% bad" saying exists. They just didn't discard and denounce him as fundamentally evil, because that would undermine all of the good achievements of China that were tied to him.
Nah I'm kidding don't worry, I'm not saying Mao didn't correct himself, just the fact that he made bigger mistakes shows that being ambitious and getting it wrong doesn't even make your posterity more precarious, so it's important to remain bold